The Manipulation of the Flying V
by flyinghawk
Summary: When most of the Eden Hall Ducks are accepted on scholarship to a prestigious university they encounter the best of all walks of athletic life. New friends, difficult situations, and life in general may manipulate the bond of the Flying V. Ken Wu-centric, but all Ducks present. Rated M for potential future chapters, and language.
1. Part One

Part One

It was nearly evening when Parker finally arrived on campus. She spent a further forty-five minutes looking for her dormitory, which happened to be a modern, if not slightly stylish, brick building clear across the field used for various sporting events. She stared up at it for a moment, wondering where her room, and, if trends continued, roommates were.

_Well, it's not as if they're going anywhere quick,_ she reasoned, hoisting her duffel bag onto her shoulder again and wrenching the door to the Ashe Dormitory open. After tripping up two flights of stairs, and wandering past three co-ed corridors, Parker finally located her room on the third floor. _Room three-oh-four. Spiffy. _She knocked lightly before entering, drawing in and holding her breath.

She didn't know what she was expecting. Maybe a dark-looking drummer with a fauxhawk and an eyepatch? Maybe a serious, bespectacled girl in a button-up and pearls? What she saw, though, made her smile. Two girls, both clad in school-issue shorts and long-sleeve shirts, were lounging on beanbags in front of a small television on a wooden stand, watching the Disney Channel. A half-eaten bag of popcorn was next to them, along with several Nalgene bottles.

"Um, hi," Parker said awkwardly. She had opted to miss the orientation week at Moloney Academy for the Athletically Inclined for the chance to plan her older sister Randall's college graduation party, and therefore missed out on the important orientation type events, like meeting roommates.

"Hey," the girl closest to the television, a girl with long blonde hair tied in a thick braid, said. "You must be Parker."

"Yeah," Parker replied stupidly. The other girl, who had short brown hair tucked into a baseball cap that read 'Moloney Academy Track and Field' on it, looked up. "That's me."

"This is Cecelia Underwood," the blonde said, pointing to the girl on the floor. "I'm Julie."

"It's nice to meet you."

The girl called Cecelia snorted, and leapt up from her place in front of the television. She plucked the cap from her head and twirled it around her finger. "That's what you think," she said. "You should hear her snore at night. It's like the Discovery Channel gone bad."

Parker smiled weakly. The two were obviously close. Quickly changing the subject, she gestured towards the two vacant loft beds, each with a dresser and desk situated underneath. Two had been taken already, and the two left were on opposite sides. "Where d'you want me to go?"

Cecelia shrugged. "Wherever. Dominique should be here soon, so, take your pick." Taking the hint that it wouldn't be a matter of life and death, Parker quickly did an eeny-meeny-miny-moe in her head, and piled her things on the bed closest to the door. When Cecelia gave a shout, she nearly dropped her duffel on her shoes. "Good choice," she said, looking pleased. "I'm over there." Parker considered this, and jokingly started to move her things, which made Julie laugh and Cecelia pout. "Not funny, girly."

"Face it, Underwood," Julie said, tossing a kernel of popcorn up and catching it neatly in her mouth. "She obviously prefers me."

Cecelia narrowed her eyes, and when Julie threw another piece of popcorn up, caught it and crumbled it into her hair. "No way, Cat Lady!"

By then, Parker had made her bed, stowed the rest of her things underneath and slipped out of the room, clutching her student identification pass. She roamed the hallways of her building, and explored the laundry room, kitchen, and common areas. She nearly got run over by a crowd of incoming students looking to move into their rooms in the corridor near the common area, and decided it would be much safer upstairs.

After getting lost on the other side of the building, Parker found her room again. When she pushed open the door, she saw that the fourth girl had arrived, a tall black girl who wore her hair in a mass of tightly braided strands. She waved when Parker walked in, a gesture that caught the attention of Cecelia and Julie.

"Oh, good, you're back," Julie said, throwing the bag of popcorn in the trash. "This is Dominique. Dom, this is Parker."

"Hello," Dominique said, her voice a deep alto. "What sport do you play?"

"Hey!" Cecelia snapped her fingers in Julie's direction. "I knew we forgot to ask something!"

Julie rolled her eyes; Dominique laughed.

"Oh," Parker said, shifting uncomfortably, "I play softball." She looked around the room. "What about you guys?"

"Hockey," Julie replied promptly. "I'm a goalie."

"We have a hockey team?" Parker was confused; she'd scoured the Moloney Academy brochures after she had been accepted, trying to familiarize herself with the statistics of the many teams, and hadn't seen anything for hockey.

"We're new," Julie explained. "The Ducks went to Eden Hall together, and the trustees decided that we should apply to Moloney on the off chance that we all get in." She paused. "And we did. Kind of. The only one who didn't was Luis, but that's because he opted for culinary arts school instead. He said it meant more girls than a school like this." She shook her head with a grin. "Typical Luis."

Parker grinned. "Cecelia?"

"Track," Cecelia said, wrinkling her nose. "Out where it's warm. All I have to do is the mile relay, and then they're happy with me. By the way, it's Lee, preferably. What about you, Dom?"

Dominique twisted a thin braid in her long fingers. "I swim." She checked her watch. "Speaking of which, do any of you know when practices start?"

"Last I heard, we were supposed to move our crap in," –Julie gestured to the room and its various levels of disarray- "And we have a floor meeting at six, practices start tomorrow at nine and go from there, and then classes start the day after tomorrow."

"Sooooo…" Parker checked her own watch (silver, with Mickey Mouse hands and a black leather band), "We have roughly, what? Two and a half hours?" She looked around. "How about we put this room into some sort of order, and then after the floor meeting we can order pizza or something?"

* * *

In no time at all, the room had been rearranged and decorated, as dormitory rooms should very well be. Julie had pinned up the season schedule for the Maine Black Bears, her home hockey team, as well as a signed team photograph. The rest of the wall space was used for a bulletin board decorated with the University of Maine at Orono paraphernalia, a picture of her and her parents outside their farm with their dog, and a pennant from Orono. Her sheets were in the school colors, and on the quilt was a stuffed black bear wearing a jersey.

Dominique had opted for six black-and-white photos of waterfalls, which the other girls later found out she'd taken herself, hung on the wall with bright pink ribbon. She had also arranged similar photos of her parents and seven brothers and sisters on her dresser, which were also decorated with pink ribbon. Her quilt and sheets were black and white, almost Victorian in nature, topped with pink pillows.

Cecelia, or Lee, as she preferred, had a slight obsession with rubber ducks. Her area of the room was plastered with a poster of the plastic animals spilling out of a bathtub. Her bedspread was a cool blue, and she had a stuffed duck resting on the pillow. Lined up on both the bookcase and the dresser were several ducks, each one personalized and different. Parker's favourite was the ninja duck, which had a set of nunchuks and a face mask painted onto the plastic.

Parker's section of the room was slightly more muted, with a comforter in beige, green, and brown stripes. She had propped up beside a green reading pillow a ragged-looking brown bear, which was missing an eye, and a stuffed baseball bat. On her walls were two large posters of the Boston Red Sox from when they finally won the World Series, an advert for the movie 'Grease', and a map of the provinces of Ireland, which showed where the different family clans were from.

The center area included all the essentials- in between Parker and Lee's beds was the refrigerator and the microwave, and in front of Dominique and Julie's beds were the two beanbag chairs, and a larger beanbag couch. The television and the stand holding their combined DVDs, videos, and videogames (for Parker had brought with her an XBOX) were situated in front of the refrigerator.

After surveying their handiwork, Dominique suggested they go and find seats for the floor meeting. They navigated past the clusters of open doors and ducked a paper airplane contest, walking down a set of three stairs, which led to the floor common area. There were already many people waiting for the meeting to start, and the four girls hurried to claim the last available seats on an ugly plaid couch. Julie found someone she knew, and introduced her roommates to her teammate and friend, Connie Moreau.

"How do you guys like it so far?" whispered Connie. Her eyes, a dark brown, were alight. "I'm whispering because my roommates are close by… they're insane!"

Parker looked over Connie's shoulder, her eyes finally settling on a glaring, dark-haired girl with glasses who was dressed in all black. Sitting next to her was a stick-thin girl with a purple Mohawk, who was busy filing her fingernails. "Are those them?" she whispered back.

"If you're looking at two girls, one dark and one purple, then you'd be correct," Connie said quietly. "The Hulk is actually Georgiana, and she plays… get this… field hockey. Horrors. The other one's called Daniella, and she's a softball player. She also has one of those Minnie Mouse voices, so it's really hard to not laugh."

"Softball?" Parker repeated. "I play softball!"

"Good luck, then," Connie snorted.

"The exterior doesn't really match," Julie commented, having spotted them herself. "Where's the third one?"

"Not here yet," Connie said. "She's kind of odd, too, but she seems okay." She stopped talking, because two older girls had just entered, wearing identical red RESLIFE polo shirts. She guessed they were the first of the three resident assistants. Sure enough, seconds later, the third one appeared, also in a red shirt. She grinned around at the people seated in front of her.

They mumbled among themselves for a couple of seconds, and then the third girl started talking. "Hey everyone!" she said, clasping her hands together. "Welcome to Ashe Dormitory! Can anyone name the athlete the building's named for?"

"Arthur Ashe!" offered a couple of people.

"Great! Tennis player, if I remember correctly," she said with a smile. "I'm Isobel Jennings, and I play polo for Moloney. This is Andrea Chase-" she gestured to a shorter, stockier girl with brown hair and an easy smile "-and this is Lane Windsor-" this time to a girl with red hair and a pointed nose. "We're going to be your resident assistants this semester and hopefully next semester too!"

"In case you haven't noticed," Andrea added, stepping forward slightly, "The floors are not segregated by gender, so many of you will be living down the hall from members of the opposite sex. This is common here at Moloney. Anyway, there are six other RAs around the building. Three per floor. I have the connector wing, which is usually called the West Side, Lane has the South Side, and Isobel has the North Side. Below us are Jared, Neil, and Emily, and on the first floor are Brent, Daphne, and Josie."

"The common areas are located in two places on each floor for your convenience," Lane continued. "They separate the South and West Sides, and North and West Sides. They all have TVs and couches and stuff, and are for everyone to use if they want. The adjoining kitchens have stoves, full refrigerators, and microwaves."

"The next-" Isobel started, but was cut off by the arrival of a sheepish-looking girl with brown hair flecked by blue streaks. "Are you here for the meeting?"

"Yeah," the girl said, "Someone told me it was in the basement laundry room." On the far side of the room, a group of boys from the basketball team snickered. "Hey! Thanks, guys!" She waved, and then proceeded to stumble over people until she sat down directly next to Connie. "Howdy, roomie. What'd I miss?"

"Anyway," Isobel said again, shaking her head and glaring at the boys, "The next thing we have to do is designate bathrooms. In the past we have had single-sex and unisex bathrooms. It's up to you guys. There are two bathrooms on North Side, and two on South Side. Hate to break it to you, but either way you vote, they're community bathrooms."

In the end, they voted for all of the bathrooms to be unisex, so no one would have to go out of their way for the bathroom, and they were adjourned. The girl who had come in late walked back to the North Side with Julie, Parker, Connie, Dominique, and Lee. She introduced herself as Mara, a lacrosse player. It turned out that the room she and Connie shared with Georgiana and Daniella was four doors down from theirs, and it seemed that they would be visiting each other often.

The rest of the evening consisted of what Dominique had jokingly referred to as 'roomie bonding,' and then sleep. Before Parker nodded off, she thought, _I think I'll like it here._

* * *

Practices for each and every athletic event that the Moloney Academy for the Athletically Inclined were held beginning at seven o'clock for the hockey team, and ending at nine o'clock, with the swim team. Before softball practice and after Julie's grueling hockey practice, Parker found herself sitting in the cafeteria (named for soccer star Mia Hamm) with her roommates. They were soon joined by Connie, who had not had enough energy to change out of the pajama pants and Moloney sweatshirt she'd worn down to the hockey rink that morning, and Mara, who was still in her lacrosse practice clothes.

"What's for eating?" Mara greeted the sleepy table. Dominique had her head resting in her hands across the table from Parker, a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal and some toast in front of her. Parker gestured to her plate.

"S'far as I'm concerned, the eggs and bacon weren't too awful. Dom burnt her toast, but that's her fault. Oh, and if the line's not too long, the egg guy will make you an omelet."

Mara grinned. "You know me so well." She took off down the small alleyway between tables, jokingly referred to by students as the catwalk, at a brisk jog. Sure enough, a few minutes later, she returned, holding a plate with a delicious-looking omelet on it, smothered in ketchup.

"That looks disgusting," Julie informed her, standing up and picking up a plate with a half-eaten stack of blueberry pancakes. "These pancakes look more appetizing, and _they_ had cultured blueberries!"

"Uh, yeah," Mara said through a mouthful of omelet. "What's the issue there, again?"

"Hello," Julie said, swigging the last of her orange juice. "From Maine. We go out in the woods and pick our own damn blueberries."

"Gotcha." Mara shoveled in a few more bites. Her cheeks were bulging. "Tho, werfff a refffft ofa eem? We needddomeem. Yoothaw aoodem eeeoufffff."

"If that was supposed to translate to, 'So where's the rest of your team? We need to meet them. You talk about them enough,'" Julie said, horrified that the girl could actually make understandable sounds, "Then they're meeting us at lunch, because they still have unpacking to do."

"Serious?" Connie asked. "Betcha Banksie and Ken and Guy and Dwayne and Averman have already unpacked. It's the others who've been lazy."

"Probably," Julie agreed. She looked across the table at Parker. "Shouldn't you be gone?"

Parker stared at her. She finally snapped out of it, and checked her watch. "Oh, shit!" She grabbed her plate, and ran towards the dish window. "Thanks, Jules!" she called over her shoulder.

* * *

"All right, ladies!" A short woman with closely cropped red hair shouted, clapping her hands. "Hustle in, hustle in! It's time to work on your hitting!"

Parker wiped a sheet of sweat off her forehead, and pushed back her hair. She ran out of center field, and nearly bowled over the shortstop, a stocky girl named Suze. They gathered around the bench in the dugout, and reached for their water bottles. With a renewed sense of vigor, they formed a line in front of the coach. She motioned for the catcher to come forward, as well as the primary pitcher.

"When Cowell gets to the mound, she'll pitch you each three balls. I'll call out a direction, and I want to see if you can direct your hit in that direction. That way, we'll have a one-up on each and every pitch you come up against."

Parker looked skeptical. Behind her, Daniella, Connie's stick-thin roommate with purple hair, snorted. "Like direction can be taught, _Coach,_" she muttered.

Parker shrugged, and slid her bat out of her equipment bag. Gripping the handle, it felt comfortable in her hands, like an old friend. She waited until the coach nodded at her, and stepped up to the plate. From the pitcher's mound Tammie smiled at her, a smile quickly returned; it took a simple gesture like that to make Parker think that the team had a chance of seriously bonding over the course of the off-and-on season.

Tammie wound up, and Parker gripped the bat, digging her cleats into the sand. Tammie let go of the ball, and the older woman shouted, "Left to center!" signaling that she wanted the ball to land somewhere in between left and center fields. Parker swung and missed, the ball's thump resounding off the bricks of the dugout. A couple of the girls snickered.

"Enough!" Coach Rothman snapped. Her eyes focused on Daniella, who was still laughing. "Meadows," she said slowly, raising a crimson eyebrow. "What is it that's so funny?"

Daniella glared at her.

"The fact that Harris missed the ball, perhaps? That's not funny. If she had missed the ball and it had hit you on the gob, that would have been funny." Rothman folded her arms across her chest, and marched over to where Daniella was standing. The violet-haired girl didn't quiver under the older woman's glare, but instead shifted from one foot to the other disinterestedly. Rothman smiled a little. "I think maybe a few laps around the track with the runners will do you some good. Twenty, and then back to the locker rooms. You and I need to have a chat." Daniella tore herself from the line and gathered her equipment, fuming silently as she exited the dugout area. "If that's everything, I think we can get back to batting," the coach said quietly, nodding to Parker.

Parker hit the next two balls, one of which was in the general area of the direction called, one of the few that made it, earning her a reprieve from laps at the end of practice.

Later in the locker room, over the deafening roar of fifteen or so teenage girls in the midst of changing up for weight training in the afternoon, Coach Rothman entered, holding a clipboard and a PA pager.

"Ladies!" she said, her voice amplifying so she could be heard over the chatter, "Weight training starts in an hour and a half! Meet back here ten minutes beforehand so we can walk over to the weight room together. If you're late, you'll do laps with the track team. Understood?"

The girls nodded.

Coach Rothman shut off the pager. "Have a good lunch."

* * *

A/N: Okay, guys, I know some of you are waiting for _Jingle Belle_, but I must say, I was super-inspired by Donuthole to make a Ducks fic work. I know it's a long shot, considering my abominable track record, but I'm going to try to keep both afloat, considering the realms are so different. Anyway, reviews and suggestions are always welcome, and thank you for putting up with my ridiculousness! Cheers! Flyinghawk


	2. Part Two

Part Two

"I think I just died," Parker said, collapsing into a chair at lunch. Her clothes were splotched with mud, and her short honey blonde hair was coming out of its headband. Across the table, Julie, Connie, and Dominique stared.

"Honey, you look like you got dragged in by a horse," Dominique snorted, sipping a glass of water. "I'm waiting for the carriage."

Parker glared at her, and sighed. "We just finished about every drill imaginable, including suicides. I hate suicides. And then we have weight training in an hour and a half. I have to get food, run to Ashe and shower, and then run back here to get all sweaty-"

"Sounds hot to me," a voice behind her said, a smirk evident in the tone. Parker whipped her head around warily, and her eyes met a tall, brown-haired boy with sparkling hazel eyes. He plopped down in the seat next to her, and stuck his hand out. "Charlie."

Parker glanced at the hand, and grasped it. "Parker." She let go of his hand, and turned to Julie, jerking her thumb in Charlie's direction. "Who's he?"

Julie choked, spilling her milk all over herself. While she was grabbing napkins to cough into, Connie answered for her. "This is the captain of our team, Charlie Conway. He's not usually such a cocky bastard."

"Awww, Connie, I'm not THAT bad, am I?" Charlie asked, pouting and giving her the puppy-dog eyes.

"I can think of a couple of Ducks I'd rather spend time with," she muttered under her breath.

Charlie grinned; it was a long-known fact, and a fact already discussed with the group of girls the previous night over pizza and iced tea, that Connie and Guy Germaine were still very much an item. "Just because I'm not as innocent as Guy-"

"Who said Guy was innocent?"

"I did," Charlie said, folding his arms across his chest. "The guy's vanilla!"

"He is not either, Spazway," Connie retorted, eyes narrowed.

"Oh yeah?" Charlie's mind immediately reverted to their numerous grade-school arguments, and he grinned. "Then what is he?"

"I-I…" Connie stammered, pausing to actually think about it.

"What's this about bein' vanilla?" asked a short black boy with a diamond earring shining from his ear. He plopped a plate piled with a Reuben sandwich and chips down beside his captain. "Don't tell me y'all are confusin' the slang." His dancing brown eyes settled on Parker. "Hi."

"Uh, hi," Parker said. "They're arguing over whether or not Guy is vanilla or not, and Charlie wants to know if he isn't vanilla then what is he. It's confusing."

The boy's eyes widened, and then he burst out laughing. "Guy. As in, Germaine? Whiter than Banksie, that Germaine?" He coughed. "Yeah, right, Connie. You have a better chance of telling me that Luis is leaving that cupcake school and taking up farming than convincing me of THAT."

"So, I'm Russ," he said conversationally, more for Dominique and Parker's benefit. "Unfortunately, I'm on the hockey team with these rejects. Any chance I could get your name, sugar?" The last part was directed more towards Dominique, and Parker couldn't blame him; her cocoa-coloured skin was even more flawless against her swimming warm-ups, which consisted of a bright white zip-up jacket and shorts, both with a red stripe down the sides, and her braided hair drawn up in a tight bun.

Dominique stared at him incredulously.

Julie, finally taking pity on him after several seconds' pause, introduced her. Russ spent the remainder of the meal trying to get her to talk to him. Parker, on the other hand, found him charming and funny. She made a mental note to hassle Dominique later about her newly-acquired admirer.

As Parker roamed the cafeteria to find something suitable to scarf before beginning the second leg of practice, she made note of the swarm of boys that descended on the table. Gathering a chicken salad sandwich and making her way through the throngs of students milling about towards the drinks, she watched as the group of boys interacted with her roommates and Connie. Joining Charlie was a blond boy dressed rather conservatively compared to Charlie's Pantera t-shirt and scuffy jeans, with khakis and a blue button-up shirt that played up his fair features, and a gawky looking boy in black jeans and a cowboy hat. Beside Russ were a redhead and a dark-haired boy munching intently on a piece of pizza. She was so busy watching them that she didn't realize her cup had overflowed until she heard someone say, "Uh, you with us?"

Snapping out of it and looking at her fruit punch-covered hand, Parker smiled sheepishly. "Sorry," she said, moving out of the person's way. "First day, new motor skills, I guess."

The speaker, a boy with sleek brown hair styled into a shaggy bowl cut, grinned. "S'okay. At least you're aware of your deficits." He filled his cup with ease, and looked at her intently. "Try not to trip over your feet on the way back to your table, huh?"

Parker smiled weakly, trying to keep a blush from rising to her face. Though more tawny than fair, Parker had the misfortune of having skin extremely susceptible to going from normal to beet red in a span of about thirty nanoseconds. "I'll try," was all she managed before turning and hurrying back to her spot.

"Who was that?" Lee, who had joined the table and elbowed a giant of a boy with short dark hair and a mischievous smile out of the seat she'd taken, asked with a wicked grin. She clutched at her heart. "Love sprung by the fountain!" she cackled.

Parker glared at her. "Shut up, Lee," she grumbled, taking a huge bite of her sandwich.

"Why?" Lee prodded, her eyes dancing. She knew Parker's type; easy to fluster, quick to annoy but not to anger, and quick to forgive. "Love at first sight? I'm thinking a crimson theme for the wedding, to mark your meeting at the fruit punch. Lovely, don't you think, doll?" she asked Charlie.

"Mmmm," Charlie said thoughtfully, studying Parker. "She does have the colouring, after all."

Parker turned her glare towards him. "Don't make me, Conway. I may have just met you, but I have no reservations knocking you on your ass."

Charlie laughed. "I like her," he said to Julie and Connie. "Can we keep her?"

Julie looked at Connie, and they both rolled their eyes. "Stuff it, Spazway," Connie said.

"Let her eat in peace, she's got weights in an hour and a half," Julie added.

Charlie immediately looked contrite. "Sorry," he grimaced. "After a three-hour practice? That's rough."

Parker grinned at him. "S'okay. I heard my coach talking to yours, and he said you guys were on right after us. Said something about weights, pilates, and then running." She grinned even wider when she saw Charlie's look of incredulity. "Have fun!" She ruffled his hair as she left.

"How do you know it was our coach?" he hollered after her. She just waved as she exited the cafeteria. He sat, and glanced dejectedly at his plate. "Shit."

* * *

In all, the time the softball team spent in the weight room wasn't that difficult. Coach Rothman started their one-hour session with a talk about teamwork and sportsmanship, and announced that Daniella had been removed from the team. She was to be drafting her resignation letter as they trained, as Moloney's athletic integrity policy was pretty straightforward. She would be allowed to stay on for the semester and try out for another team, but her time with the softball team was through, and any additional strikes against her would be grounds for expulsion. Parker couldn't help but smirk a little at that, and had more fun with the free weights than she thought.

Afterward, Coach Rothman had handed out slips of paper with three lines on them. "For your team name submissions," she'd said, going on to elaborate on the uniqueness of Moloney's athletic mascotry. Each team chose a mascot for the year, and, provided that they fundraise, displayed that particular animal and the Moloney colours (red and white) on their uniforms.

She arrived back at Ashe Dormitory with her limbs feeling more like Jell-O than actual appendages, her clean set of practice clothes disgusting and wrinkled. Climbing the stairs proved to be more of a challenge than she had originally anticipated, and thanked God that she was placed on the third floor instead of the fifth floor. Pushing the door open, she was not at all surprised to see some of the Ducks sprawled out around the room in various states of exhaustion. Dominique had left for the pre-swim team meeting, and Lee was still running around on the tarmac with the rest of the sprinters. Julie and Connie were sharing a beanbag and watching intently as Russ and the redheaded boy played Halo 2 on Parker's X-Box. The blond boy was seated at Julie's desk, typing intently on a laptop computer.

"Hey guys," Parker mumbled as she shuffled in.

"Parker, you look awful," Julie said, not even looking at her.

"Hi to you too, Gaffney," she said, rummaging around in her dresser for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Picking up her shower caddy, she slipped on her Adidas slide-ons, and shuffled out of the room again.

After her shower Parker was surprised to see that her roommate and most of the Ducks had left, but the blond boy was still typing away at Julie's desk. Not wanting to startle him, she allowed the door to click shut behind her, hoping the noise would be enough to alert him. He didn't move, didn't twitch. Nothing.

Wanting more than ever to just climb into her bed and fall asleep, Parker groaned inwardly and put her things away. The boy looked up, and, for a brief moment, looked petrified.

"Hi," Parker said. "I'm Parker. I live with Julie."

The boy gave a polite smile, and then gestured to his laptop and a stack of books she hadn't noticed there before. "I'm Adam. Julie told me I could stay here and study." He paused. "I hope that's okay."

Parker shook her head. "Uh, yeah, it's fine." She kicked off her sandals and plopped down in her desk chair. "I'm probably going to head up the bed in a sec, but I'll be out like a light with or without you here, so…" She paused. "How, exactly, do you have studying to do already?"

"I can leave if you want me to," Adam said quickly. "Uh… I took a math class to prep for classes over the summer?"

She rolled her eyes. "You sound confused, but okay. Dude, I said you could stay. I'm just saying, I hope you're not uncomfortable being alone with someone who could pass as unconscious."

Adam shrugged and turned back to his computer. Parker pulled a face and shrugged back at him, and slipped a headband over her head. "Night," she said, climbing like a monkey into her loft bed. Adam looked up at her with a bemused smile.

"You comfortable? Would you like me to shut the light off?" he asked.

She patted down the comforter and sighed happily. "Nope. I'm good. Night, Blondie."

* * *

The first day of classes started early in Suite 304, when Dominique's alarm went off promptly at 5:30 for her personal pre-class practice. Her alarm woke Parker before she could shut it off, and the dark girl grinned sheepishly at her glowering roommate. To make matters worse, Parker hit her head off the ceiling when she sat upright in her bed.

With a muttered 'fuck', Parker rubbed her forehead. After trying to go back to sleep, she threw the covers back and slid down the bed, promptly falling in a heap on the floor. From across the room Lee rubbed her eyes and snickered. "You know, most people learn to walk BEFORE they come to college, Harris."

Still in a heap on the floor next to her softball cleats, Parker gave Lee the finger. "Shut up, Underwood." She picked herself off the floor and started rummaging through her dresser drawers, which prompted Lee to groan and pull her pillow over her head.

"Are you absolutely nuts?" Lee whined. "One too many softballs to the head?"

Parker grinned to herself, pulling on an old Yankees shirt. "Oh, no, missy. Jules gets out of hockey practice at seven-thirty, then she's going to shower and then we're going to breakfast."

"But I don't have to go to class til ten-thirty!" came Lee's muffled howl from underneath her pillow. She suddenly squinted in Parker's direction, hair mussed. "Connie isn't up!"

"And how do you know that, exactly?" Parker asked, zipping her jeans. She looked pointedly at Lee. "Isn't she at hockey practice with Julie?"

The runner slumped back down into her blankets. "Shit."

An hour or so later they were sitting at their table in the cafeteria, joined shortly by Connie's roommate Mara. It was obvious that she was not a morning person, despite having class every morning at eight o'clock; she had on a pair of black running shorts, a red tank top over a green hoodie, and two different coloured flip-flops. Coming back from the cereal bar, Parker stifled a giggle when she saw her. She slid into her seat beside Lee, who was nursing two cups of coffee and yawning, and hastily shoveled her oatmeal into her mouth. Next to her, Lee was mumbling under her breath about inconsiderate roommates and how a person needed their sleep once in a while in order to function properly.

Parker snorted into her oatmeal, earning herself a well-aimed elbow. Meeting Connie and Julie's eyes and laughing, she stood to go put her dishes in the window.

She hadn't counted on collision.

For the second time that morning, Parker picked herself off the floor, mouth dropping in horror when she felt the milk from the bottom of her cup seeping into the seat of her jeans. She attempted standing, but her foot slipped in the puddle forming, colliding again with the poor person she'd taken out.

"I'm so sorry," she said quickly, glancing at the person sprawled out on the floor. She jealously noted that they were well out of the puddle's reach. She found herself face-to-face with a pair of almond-shaped brown eyes. She smiled impishly in spite of herself. "I'm really sorry… I don't know how to walk."

The boy grinned. "You're forgiven. After all, it's" –he checked his watch- "not even eight o'clock yet." He offered her his hand.

"Thanks," Parker said. The boy was at least a foot taller than she was, an easy feat considering she only stood at five foot four, with smooth black hair that fell into his eyes. His broad, boyish smile created small crinkles near those eyes; the eyes that made a little piece of Parker's heart melt as she took his hand. Once she was back on her feet, he handed her the tray she'd been carrying.

Together, they walked to the dish window, and he smiled again. "Well, next time I see you I'll try to get your attention," he said as he walked away. Grinning to herself, Parker practically skipped back to the table, where her friends were dying of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Parker demanded.

Julie shook her head, her mouth full. She swallowed, and said, "Uh… Parker, your pants are soaked!" Parker looked at her suspiciously, and ran a cautious hand over her bottom. Sure enough, the denim was drenched. Julie laughed even harder at her expression. "And on top of that, Kenny looked like he wanted to die!"

"Kenny?" Parker repeated. She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "As in, the kid I ran into?"

Julie nodded.

"You know him?"

Another nod.

Parker groaned. "Great."

* * *

After Parker made a quick stop back into her room to change her jeans, she proceeded with her map in hand to her first-ever college class. She found the room without incident (more importantly, without falling or tripping), and peeked inside. While most of the people in the lecture hall were unfamiliar, Parker recognised one of them; the pitcher on the softball team, Tammie. The dark-haired girl looked up and smiled warmly as Parker hoisted her canvas messenger bag in front of her to an empty seat in the middle. She opened a notebook, scribbled 'Class Notes' at the top of the page with the date, and waited, tapping her pen.

People trickled in, and Parker kept craning her head for the professor. Next thing she knew a large, bearded man with thinning hair and large glasses walked in carrying a tattered briefcase. He opened the clasps and started rummaging around, taking out a laser pointer and a smooth stone. He had just stuck his hand back in it when the classroom door opened again. Parker looked up again to see Kenny, the boy she had run into, poke his head in. After whispering to a redheaded kid with glasses close to the door that she thought she recognized, he walked in and started looking for a seat. He eventually found one a couple of rows up, a bit to the right in front of Parker.

As soon as he sat down, the professor barked, "Okie-dokie, listen up!"

The hall fell silent. He quickly took attendance, and then began explaining how his classroom ran. "I don't take emailed copies of anything. Email is nonexistent from this day forward. If you email it, it will get lost and then you will fail because I don't waste my time with that new-aged silliness. If you want something graded, you put the stylus to the tablet and carve." He looked around expectantly, and, after several seconds' awkward pause, shrugged. "Never mind then."

An hour later, Parker gathered her things and made a beeline for the door- her bladder was thisclose to exploding. Before she could get there, however, Kenny, the boy from earlier, appeared in her peripherals.

"Some first class, huh?"

"The guy sure knew how to make an impression," she said, eyes darting desperately toward the door. She turned toward Kenny. "I'm real sorry, and I really want to keep going with this walk-and-talk thing we have going on," she paused as they rounded the corner, where the bathrooms were, "But I have to go to the bathroom. Wait a sec?"

Kenny nodded. He was checking his text messages when Averman caught up with him a second later.

"Hey Kenny, I thought you'd be chatting up Julie's roommate on the way back to the dorms by now. You went and left me behind, what gives?" Averman looked properly affronted.

Kenny instantly felt bad. He knew Averman had been checking with the professor to see if there was a later section so he could sleep in, but had been intent on making a better impression than the one he'd made at breakfast. The Ducks were notorious for spending the time they had off the ice together, and as Julie's roommate, he figured getting on the blonde girl's good side couldn't hurt.

"Sorry, dude," he said, smiling sheepishly. "I was talking to Julie's roommate, but she's in the bathroom."

Averman nodded. "Ohhhhh, gotcha." He paused. "Uh, Ken?"

"Mm, yeah?"

"Can I walk back with you guys? I dropped my map in the lecture hall and don't really remember where our building is. I mean, I'm sure I'd find it eventually, but I have zoology at 10:30." Kenny and Averman, along with the majority of the other Ducks, had the good fortune to be placed in suites with other Ducks, or in the case of Julie and Connie, right down the hall.

Just as Kenny said, "Sure, Averman," the bathroom door swung open, and Parker walked out. Her eyes lit up when she saw Averman standing with Kenny, but as she moved forward, her messenger bag caught on the handle and jerked her back, sending her sprawling on the floor for the third time that morning.

Averman clapped as she picked herself back up.

"Graceful today, aren't I?" she said with an embarrassed smile. She turned to Averman as they started walking. "You ate lunch with us yesterday, right?"

"That would be correct. Lester Averman," he said, sticking his hand out to shake. "You're one of Julie's roommates. Lemme guess. You're the… track star?"

Parker burst out laughing. "Negatory, big bird." Catching Kenny and Averman's confused looks, she barreled on, "Sorry, something my dad says. I'm Parker Harris. I play softball."

"Kenny Wu," Kenny said from Averman's other side. "So, Averman, you switching out of class or what?"

The redhead shrugged. "The professor told me that the only way I was getting out of the 8:00 class was if I had something else to take its place." He deepened his voice and swung his arms around jerkily, clearly an imitation of the professor. "'You're too young to be worried about sleep. You can sleep when you're dead.'"

On their way out of the building, they passed his office door. Parker was delighted to see that that his door was completely devoid of all frivolous decoration save for a bumper sticker that read, 'gonna vote this year, stupid hippie?' The sticker alone said everything they would need to know about him. As they were discussing the professor and his anti-technology attitude, Parker heard a voice behind her.

"Harris!"

Parker turned, and saw Tammie, the stocky brown-haired pitcher coming towards her. "Hey!" she said.

"Some class, huh?" Tammie shook her head. "Imagine, no email? So weird!"

Together, the four proceeded towards the dormitories, discussing the syllabus and the project they had to complete in October. After deciding that they would eventually form a study group, Tammie parted ways with them, explaining that she lived across the street from the major dining hall, Hamm Café, in Bannock Dormitory. Parker quickly confirmed their practice schedule, and she, Kenny, and Averman pushed on toward Ashe. They stopped in front of Chamberlain Dormitory, where Averman explained that he, Kenny, and two of their Duck teammates lived on the first floor.

With a smile permitted only to redheads with glasses, he unceremoniously invited her in, but she declined with a grin, saying that it was only a matter of time when she could find it blindfolded. She couldn't help but notice the smile Kenny gave her after she said it, and walked away from them humming cheerfully.

Averman watched her as she walked towards her own building, catching strains of the song she was humming. He had seen the smile Kenny had given her. Despite his jokester façade, he wasn't stupid, not by a long shot. He could tell that there were sparks, if only little tiny ones, between Kenny and the girl. He made a mental note to tell their captain. He was notorious for 'helping' situations like these.

* * *

A/N: Okay, guys, I know some of you are still waiting for _Jingle Belle_, but I re-read some of my favorite Ducks fics (hats off to Donuthole, NYGoldfish54, and Punkteacher), and realized that not many people write much about the other Ducks… like Kenny, Averman, Goldberg, Dwayne, and Luis. I'm advocating for the lesser-known Ducks, mainly because I love reading about Kenny and the majority of what's out there make him angsty and unappealing. Anyway, let me know what you think, suggestions and criticisms welcome!

Over and out!

Flyinghawk


	3. Part Three

Part Three

It took the better part of a week to get into a routine, working around classes, practices, and mealtimes. It took a day and a half to establish common mealtimes that Julie and her roommates, joined most often by at least Connie and Mara, if not additional Ducks. It took Mara two weeks to realize that living with Connie meant an alarm going off at 6:30 so she wouldn't be late to hockey practice. Despite how easy everyone had fallen into a routine, it took three weeks before Connie snapped.

"I can't STAND that girl!" she said with a huff, stomping into Ashe 304 in the early afternoon. Dominique and Lee were both in class, and Julie was at her desk, reading for her psychology class the next day. She frowned, and closed her book.

"Which one, exactly?" she asked, capping her yellow highlighter and setting it down next to the book. Reaching for her Nalgene bottle and gesturing backward to a beanbag, she added, "In case you forgot, you live with three other girls… and campus is full of 'em." She finally looked at Connie, and raised her eyebrows.

Connie was standing, dripping wet, in only her towel and shower sandals, holding a blue shower caddy.

"I ask her to not lock the door because I wanted to shower, and what does she do?" Connie grumbled. "This is the third time she's locked one of us out this week!"

"Lemme guess. Daniella?" Julie said.

Connie nodded. "She's awful! I left my keys on my dresser, and I know she heard me, because she said, 'Sure,' when I asked her to leave the door unlocked. Last night, poor Mara had to wait two hours for Georgiana to show up from wherever she was to let her in, because I was over at Guy's."

"Sounds to me like that's a job for… Super-Andrea!" Parker cried with a flourish of her high school softball team's North Face jacket as she entered the room. Connie couldn't help but smile at that; the girls on the West Side had given Andrea the nickname 'Super-Andrea' because, despite her eagerness, Andrea had turned out to be a really sweet girl who had become an RA because she genuinely cared about people. She had turned up a couple of days after the floor meeting with candy and asked about everyone's first day, not because she had to, but because she was actually interested. Since then, the girls of 304 and Connie and Mara had made brunch plans with Andrea and a couple of the RAs on different floors in the hall.

"Hey Parker," Connie said. "How was stats this time?"

Parker had realized early on that statistics was one class that she was not going to do well in. Numbers didn't come easily to her, and the professor seemed to be pretty tough. He was an older man, with dark hair, mischievous brown eyes, and a goatee. Parker had immediately left her first class to go to the Robinson Center for Academics and signed up for Supplementary Instruction with a student who'd aced the class the year before. Four SI meetings later, and Parker was still lost.

"Nightmare," Parker groaned, tossing her books and binder on her desk. "I'm useless at math. You'd think as an athlete, I'd know how to use what we're doing, but no dice."

Connie made a sympathetic face. "Sorry."

"Meh," Parker shrugged. "It could be worse."

"Oh yeah?" Julie asked.

"Yeah," Parker said with a grin, "I could be in a towel and still be miserable about stats." Dodging a kick from Connie, she danced out of the room, calling, "I'll be back with Super-Andrea in a second!"

* * *

It took Parker the greater part of twenty minutes to find an available RA to come and unlock Connie's door. When she went down to Andrea's door, her whiteboard said that she was at lunch. She continued over to the South Side to Lane's door, but she was gone. Rather than doubling back to see if Isobel was around, Parker went down a floor to Jared's door.

Thankfully, as she approached the door she could tell that he was in there from the mingled scents of coffee and Ralph Lauren cologne. He was sitting at his desk, and from the look of it, attempting to write a paper of some sort, if the stack of open books surrounding his laptop were any indication.

She knocked on the doorframe, and said, "Knock knock!"

He looked up, and said, "Hey, what's up? C'mon in," he gestured to the chair that held his backpack.

"Hi," Parker said, hoping she didn't sound like a freshman. Jared was a junior who played basketball, and was easily one of the most attractive on the team. His floppy brown hair, wide grin, and warm brown eyes made girls weak in the knees, and his height made him a goofy kind of adorable- 6'5 was apparently harder to make seem graceful than it seemed. He kind of reminded Parker of a taller Tony DiNozzo from _NCIS._"I dunno if we've met, but I'm Parker Harris. I live upstairs, and one of my friends got locked out of her room…"

"Ah, yes… lemme guess. She was in the shower, so you got elected to find an RA?" Jared asked. When Parker nodded, he smiled. "Happens all the time. Happened to me last week, actually. Had to go get Neil. No one to blame but myself." He grabbed his keys, which were lying on the desk. "C'mon, let's head down to the office."

On the way to the RA office, Jared asked Parker how she liked it at Moloney, what sport she played, and if she was enjoying classes. Once they got to the office, he keyed in and left her standing in the doorway while he flipped through the lockbox for the master key. She looked around the office at an assortment of decorations and a giant inflatable palm tree and asked, "Um, is someone planning a luau?"

"You bet!" Jared emerged, master key dangling from his fingers. "All of the RAs decided it would be cool to throw a luau bash in honor of the first month of classes. It's supposed to be Saturday, which unfortunately is the first swim meet and the golf away game in Kentucky." He frowned. "You gunna come?"

"Maybe," Parker said, shrugging. "What do you do at a luau, exactly?"

Jared shut the office again, and they took off for the West Side. "Well, we're planning on having a costume contest, Brent's idea, and Isobel and Emily are in charge of the tiki bar… we're going to weave in some educational aspects too, 'cos we're supposed to educate everyone on Moloney's alcohol policy… did your coach go over that with you?"

"Yeah, it was in the first week or so. We had one girl get thrown off the softball team for drinking," Parker said. Granted, it was their designated hitter, but still. One girl down was difficult, especially since Daniella had been removed that first day. They were supposed to be holding tryouts within the next week. Each student-athlete was able to play up to two sports, as long as their on-seasons were at different points in the year. Most people that Parker had talked to played a fall and a spring, or a summer and a winter sport to help space the intensity of the practices out. She hoped that at least a couple girls were interested.

"Yeah, it's a big deal." Jared said, holding the door to the stairwell open for her. "Anyway, so, a little education, some fruit smoothies, what's not to love? Throw in some music, dee-jayed by Neil, he's a mix-master, and a limbo contest and I think Em's gunna teach people how to hula. She's from Hawaii, did you know that?"

"No! That's sweet!"

"I know, right? So, promise you'll come?" Jared shot her the puppy-dog face. "Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

"I'm sure we could stop by," Parker teased. She walked into her room. "Super-Andrea's at lunch, but I found Jared!"

"Knight in shining armor, at your service," he said with a small bow, jingling the keys.

Connie picked up her caddy, told Parker and Julie she'd be back in a few, and led Jared toward her door. As they walked down the hall, Parker could hear Jared telling Connie that he'd been a little ambitious a second ago, and described himself more as a knight in shining tinfoil. Parker grinned as she heard his low chuckle. She had just sat down at her desk when he walked by again, and paused in their doorway.

"I mean it, Parker," he said, mock-sternly. "Saturday. 7:30. No exceptions." With a final wave, he walked away.

"What was that about?" Julie asked. She'd gone back to her psychology book, and was in the process of making flash cards for herself.

"Apparently," Parker said, pulling her anthropology book off of her bookshelf, "There's going to be a luau on Saturday. The RAs are putting it on… it sounds like it could be fun." She sprawled out on the floor with her notebook.

Connie returned a moment later, her brown hair thrown into a ponytail, wearing jeans and a pink polo shirt. She hadn't bothered to put shoes on, since she lived four doors down, so she slid into the room on her socks. "What's this about a luau?" she asked, settling herself into one of the beanbags with her Brit Lit homework.

"The RAs are throwing one," Julie replied. She cut a stack of index cards in half with a pair of scissors from her desk. "Wanna go? Parker promised Jared she'd stop by." The blonde's lips quirked into a smile.

"Oooooh!" teased Connie. "Hubba, hubba!"

"I know, I know, I know, I'm that awesome," a familiar voice sounded from the hallway. Connie and Parker looked up to see Russ playing with his collar.

"Hey, Russ," Julie said, not even looking up from her notecards. "Dom's already left for class, if that's why you're here."

"Can't a brother come by to see his favor- wait, Dom's not here? She left without me?" Russ sputtered. Parker had to hand it to him. He was persistent. He'd finally gotten Dominique to sit with him in their First Year Seminar class, a topic class mandatory for each freshman. He and Dominique were in 'Islam and the West,' and he had yet to remember that on Wednesdays, Dominique was in Spanish I beforehand. On Fridays, they walked to class together.

"Wednesday, bud," Parker reminded him.

He clapped a hand to his forehead. "I'll get it eventually," he said glumly. "Catch ya later!"

After she heard the door to the stairwell close, Parker looked up and surveyed her friends. "Can't lie, the kid's got style."

* * *

Parker was pleased to see that Russ and Dominique showed up to dinner together after their class ended at 5:15. She, Julie, Charlie, and Adam were already at dinner- Connie had elected to wait for Guy's class to let out at 5:20, but said she'd join them. With the four of them, plus Russ and Dominique, that left six other chairs around them. She asked the others for their keys or jackets to mark the spots as taken, as such was common practice at Moloney. Thankfully, it was a practice that was respected by all.

After tossing her own keys to the empty spot on her left, she jumped back into the present conversation, which seemed to revolve around something that had happened when the Ducks were in high school.

"We couldn't have told you, Banksie," Charlie was saying as he stirred his chicken pot pie. "We didn't know if you'd gone over to the enemy or not!"

"Still," Adam said grumpily, "You could've spared my clothes when you iced them."

"Okay, that was a little far," Charlie admitted. "But it was kind of fun to take out one of the army of sweater-vests you command!"

Parker snorted. "You iced his clothes?"

Russ slid into the seat opposite Parker, and tossed Adam his keys. "You're not still crabby about that, are you, Cake-eater? That was freshman year of high school!"

Adam frowned. "It was a big deal! That was my favor-"

Parker cut him off. "Blondie, if you say that was your favorite sweater vest, I'll never be able to take you seriously again."

Adam glared at her. "But it was! It had hockey sticks stitched around the hem and everything."

Parker laughed, clapping her hands. "Now I've heard everything." Beside her, Charlie was laughing so hard he choked a little on his Coke. Parker pounded him on the back until he spluttered and held his arms up, still laughing.

Adam, on the other hand, was not amused. Parker didn't mean to get him worked up, but she could see how he had become the butt of some of the Ducks' jokes. He was serious about hockey and school, and had a penchant for dressing on the preppier side. Not that it was a bad look, but he tended to dress more formally than his teammates. "Fine," he huffed, stabbing a piece of broccoli on his plate and crunching into it.

Parker had turned her attention to her own chicken pot pie and string beans, and was just about to take a bite when someone slid into the seat on her left. Figuring it was Connie or Guy, she took her bite anyway. _Not bad,_ she thought. _A little chewy, but not bad._

"Yo, Wu, what's up?" Russ greeted the newcomer.

"Not too much, just got out of class," Kenny answered. He nudged Parker. "This seat open?"

Parker tried to hurry the mouthful she'd just taken, but settled for gesturing a 'sure, it's yours' for Kenny. He laughed, thankfully, and set his backpack in the seat while he went looking for dinner. Connie and Guy turned up then, and took two of the remaining five seats.

They returned a few minutes later, just as the cafeteria started really getting busy. Charlie and Russ had continued with stories from high school for Parker's sake, since she was the only one present who had not attended Eden Hall. When they got to the part where they sent Dwayne Robertson to rope a Varsity player, Parker was in hysterics; she couldn't believe some of the antics they had gotten away with.

"Where did you go to high school, Parker?" Kenny asked from her left.

"Oh, I went to high school in a town near mine in Rhode Island. Portsmouth High School. Little Compton, that's the town I live in, only has a school for up to eighth grade."

"What was your mascot?" Charlie asked.

"We were the Patriots. Kind of boring, but fits in with the area's history," Parker replied, shrugging noncommittally. "I'm assuming you guys are sticking with the Ducks for your mascot?" She was referring, of course, to Moloney's tradition of allowing each team to choose their own mascot.

"The majority of them have been Ducks all their life. That semester of being a Warrior almost killed Charlie," Russ said. He glanced at Adam. "Oh, wait, sorry Cake-eater, you were a Hawk for a while, too."

"Only a year," Adam said quickly. Parker sensed that Adam's history of being on opposing teams was a bit of a sore spot with him, and understood why. Julie and Connie had explained the whole situation to her and Mara, who had turned out to be almost as goofy as Averman, one night while they were watching _CSI._

"We took a team vote!" Charlie said, taking a drink of milk. "I didn't think it was only my decision."

Connie nodded with a smile. "It was very thoughtful of you, Charlie."

"So," Julie said as she took a bite of the brownie Connie had gotten for her when she went to refill her glass of milk, "Any idea what the softball team is going to go with?"

"No idea," Parker said, sighing. "It's getting to be a little bit of a pain in the butt, actually."

"Why's that?" Kenny asked curiously.

"Because everyone wants something different. A couple girls want to go with an animal, another wants to go elemental, it's ridiculous. At this rate, we're going to be the Red Ram Stormwatchers."

Everyone laughed sympathetically.

"How cute," a new voice piped up scathingly. "Should match the mishmash of girls on that team, then." Everyone's heads swiveled down towards the end of the table that had, until apparently incredibly recently, had been unoccupied.

Daniella Meadows, the roommate of Connie's who had been kicked off of Parker's team, sat with one of her friends at the end of the table. Both were sneering in their direction.

"What's it to you, hedgehog?" Russ shot back.

"Cute," the brown-haired girl with Daniella said sarcastically. "Did you learn that in the ghetto?"

Russ started to get up, but Dominique pulled on his arm, murmuring quietly that it wasn't worth it. Russ pushed his plate aside, and glared at Daniella. Since the majority of the group had finished anyway, Julie and Connie stood, which encouraged everyone else to get up to leave. Parker pushed the rest of her chicken pot pie away, and grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair. Suddenly she wasn't hungry anymore.

"Parker, its fine, don't worry about it," Charlie started to say as they brought their dishes over to the window. Parker could feel Daniella and her friend's eyes on them from across the cafeteria. She zipped her jacket up and turned toward the door.

Kenny, who had been behind the majority of the group, put his plate and cup up, and ran to catch up to her near the front of the group. Connie and Guy were deep in conversation about something involving their weekend plans, and Julie, Adam, and Charlie were trying to figure out what mascot the swim team would pick that wouldn't sound too lame. Dominique had gone in the opposite direction, towards the library. Daniella and her friend had been forgotten.

"You okay?" he asked, his brown eyes crinkling in concern.

Parker shrugged. "I feel like it's my fault Daniella's stupid friend said something to Russ," she said finally.

Russ came barreling up behind them just then, having said goodbye to Dominique, and caught Parker and Kenny in a giant bear hug. His arm caught Parker right across the shoulders, and his other got Kenny. He pulled them together, and since Parker was so short, she tucked right into his and Kenny's shoulders perfectly. She grinned up at them, and then frowned.

"Sorry about that-" she started to say, but Russ cut her off.

"Psssh. I've heard… and said… worse," he said offhandedly. "Whaddya say you come with me and Kenny to get Averman, and you can meet Dwayne, and we'll head down to Scoops?"

She laughed. "Uh… did we or did we not just come from dinner?"

Kenny grinned down at her. He liked the fact that he was finally taller than someone. Granted, he'd shot up over the summer, pulling even with Russ and Goldberg in height at 5'11ish, but compared to Charlie and Adam, who were easily 6'2, 6'3, he was still the short one. "With Russ," he said, "There's always time for ice cream."

Parker wrangled herself out of their arms, and trotted over to Julie and Connie. "Hey," she said, "I'm gunna head over to Kenny and Russ'. I'll be back eventually."

"Don't forget that we told Mara we'd watch _the Sound of Music _with her tonight," Julie reminded her. She made a face. "Don't get me wrong, I love that movie, but I have so much psych homework to do."

"Me too," Connie piped up. "But anything to get me and Mara out of our room is greatly appreciated."

"No big, we shouldn't be that long," Parker said happily. "Text me before you start?"

They assured her they would, and they headed towards Ashe. Parker skipped back to the boys, her blonde ponytail swinging, making her look a lot less like a college student and a lot more like an excited little kid, and linked arms with both of them. "Lead the way!"

* * *

"Cowboy! I haven't seen you in ages!" Averman said as he walked through the door to his suite. He had just finished his grueling organic chemistry class, which was both difficult and irritating because it was scheduled during dinner hours three times a week. He had given up in the snack bar due to the long line of people (most of them from his lecture section), and come back to the dormitories.

"Well, now, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Dwayne, who was a rather sweet, slightly traditionally polite guy from Texas, stood up from his desk, where he had been working on his ecology homework. "I thought maybe you or Russ or Kenny would come back here before dinner, so I wanted to wait and make sure y'all had someone to eat with. Problem is, I think they went straight from class, and I ain't eaten yet!"

Averman looked at his friend incredulously. Dwayne hadn't had dinner, because he was waiting for his roommates in case they didn't have anyone to eat with? Say what you want about the Cowboy's backwards ways. The kid was thoughtful and polite.

"Wanna go downtown and grab a slice of pizza or something?"

Dwayne sighed, and put his trademark cowboy hat on his head. It had been resting on the side of his desk, next to his laptop. "I guess. I had my heart set on meatloaf. Pizza sure would hit the spot, though!"

Averman threw his backpack on his desk chair, which was underneath a mountain of dirty laundry that had spilled over from his laundry basket. "Then let's go!"

Dwayne stood, and smoothed his flannel shirt, making sure it was tucked in neatly. He took a couple of bills out of the cow piggybank that stood on his dresser, and folded them into his wallet. "Let's rustle up some grub."

* * *

Kenny and Russ led Parker towards their room, pointing out the important places- Russ was adamant that Parker see the chair in the lobby that he'd seen two guys making out in when he came out to use the vending machine one night. Kenny stopped abruptly in front of their room, causing Parker and Russ to run into him; Parker almost fell over, but managed to steady herself by grabbing at Kenny.

"Uh, it looks like they're not here," Kenny said glumly. He pointed to the whiteboard on the door. It was definitely Averman's chicken scratch- he could make out the word 'pizza,' but nothing else. "Maybe they went downtown?"

"Huh. Wondered why the rodeo clown wasn't at dinner," Russ peered at the whiteboard. "I think that says downtown." He paused, then turned to Parker. "Maybe they went downtown?" He shrugged.

"You don't say." Her eyes twinkled. Gesturing to the door, she raised an eyebrow at Kenny. "You guys need anything before we hunt down that ice cream?"

"Yeah, I need a jacket." Russ pushed past Kenny and keyed into the room.

Parker wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but she found herself slightly surprised at the state of their room. Set up almost exactly like her own suite, one half of the room had the more 'lived-in' look that she associated with boys. One desk chair had laundry all over it, and had a model of the solar system sharing the desk with a MacBook Pro. The bed was unmade, and the wall above the desk had a diagram of a dwarf star on it. Next to it, the desk had a large stereo and a stack of cds on the top, and draped over the back of the chair was a well-worn hoodie. This bed had a red and black plaid comforter and black sheets, and the dresser top was littered with hats.

Parker guessed that part of the other half, then, belonged to Dwayne, if the cow piggybank on the far dresser was any indication. His comforter seemed to be a patchwork prairie quilt, and his desk had a sturdy-looking laptop and a bunch of books. Among them, Parker noted with some amusement, was _the Farmer's Almanac._

She turned to the last set, which was to her left closest to the door. She was surprised to see a plain-looking red comforter and a worn teddy bear on the bed, as well as a framed picture a little boy and an older gentleman hanging on the wall. She stepped closer and stood on tiptoe in order to get a better look.

It was a much younger Kenny, a pair of black figure skates slung over his shoulder as he grinned at the camera. She assumed that the older gentleman was his grandfather- his lined face and fading dark hair were displaced with his wide smile.

"That was right before the first competition I ever skated in," Kenny murmured from behind her. "That poster-" –he pointed to a series of promotional posters hanging over his desk, "Those were from the Junior Goodwill Games, when I first joined the Ducks. And these," he picked up two framed photographs; one was the Ducks, only they were much younger. Parker recognized the majority of them, and spotted Kenny kneeling in the front. He was so much smaller than everyone else, even shorter than Connie, who was kneeling opposite him. The other photograph was his whole family- grandfather in the center, mother and father standing behind him, and Kenny and a young girl beside him. Again, this photo looked to be an older one- Kenny now stood at least 6'0. "These were from high school."

"Cool. Is this your family?" She pointed at the second photograph.

"Yeah. My grandfather came over from Korea when I started skating. Early on, my sister wasn't a skater, but she started shortly after I did so she'd have something to do while I was at practice. Before that, though, they spent a lot of time together."

"How much younger is she?"

"She's a senior in high school this year." There was a hint of pride in his voice. "Allison's class president."

"Nice!"

Kenny put the photos back on the dresser, then gestured to the room. "So, here it is. Eventually you'll be able to get here blindfolded." His eyes crinkled as he grinned.

"Of course." Parker laughed. "Ready, Russ?"

"I've been ready," was the reply we got from the larger boy, who had put on his hoodie in the meantime. "Waiting on you two."

"Sorry!" Parker flashed Kenny an 'oh, crap' look. Turning to Russ and smiling sweetly, "Downtown? Ice cream?"

Russ grinned, and plunked a hat on his head. "On the way, you guys can explain when your relationship started including blindfolds."

* * *

The air in the pizzeria was thick with the scent of the most delicious pizza their small Pennsylvania college town had to offer. Called Paulo's, it embodied the pizzerias of yesteryear, with a smart-looking black and white checked tile floor, red vinyl booths, and a real honest-to-goodness jukebox in the corner. Paulo Napolitano and his family ran the restaurant; Paulo was a plump Italian man with twinkly brown eyes and a heavy Italian-turned-Pennsylvanian accent. Maria, Paulo's wife, was plump as well, with dark hair streaked with gray. Her nose curved much like a bird's, and she was the mastermind behind the glorious array of Italian pastries in the glass cabinets.

Dwayne and Averman pushed through the door and inhaled slowly, savoring the mouth-watering scent of hot pizza. As soon as they had closed the door, Maria Napolitano was in front of them, gesturing and speaking in a mixture of English and Italian to choose a booth while she got them menus.

The place wasn't completely deserted; tucked in a small corner booth was a girl about their age, surrounded by books. What Averman assumed was her gym bag was in a heap at her feet, which, upon closer inspection, held her soccer gear.

Dwayne chose a booth nearby, closer to the door. Maria appeared almost instantaneously with menus, bread, and ice water. The older woman whisked around, pouring their water and doling out china, and then disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

"Some service," Averman said, impressed.

Dwayne took a long draught from his ice water and opened his menu. "Pizza?"

* * *

Angela Napolitano rolled her eyes as she read a sentence for the seventh time. The two boys sitting nearby were obviously not accustomed to ordering pizza for just themselves, and had engaged in a very long-winded discussion of what kind to order. If it weren't for the fact that she had an outline on the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire due at the end of the week, she would have found the situation funny.

Now she was just irritated.

"You know, you could always order a pie with half pepperoni, half veggie," she finally ground out, glaring at the two boys.

The one that had taken off a cowboy hat to reveal the biggest cowlick she'd ever seen turned around and nodded politely. "My apologies, miss," he said, Southern drawl evident. "I didn't realize we were disturbing you."

"Dinner rush came and went, so I figured I'd be safe to study here," she replied, turning back around.

"We didn't mean to-" Averman stammered, his glasses wobbling on his face.

"It's fine. I hope that helped your dilemma." She smiled, and turned back to her books.

Maria Napolitano appeared a moment later, ready with a notepad and pen to take their order. Dwayne couldn't help but notice that she shot a warning glance at the girl with the books as she went by, and he wondered how they knew each other.

* * *

"Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" Parker sang dreamily, staring up at the long list of flavors outside of Scoops. It was a cute little walk-up shop, with a red and white striped overhang and popsicle sticks lining the windows that told what flavors they had. The fact that they were at the back of the line was a blessing in disguise- Parker had spent the past ten minutes debating with herself over what to get.

There was also a slight problem, one that she wasn't sure how to communicate to the boys. Both had long since made up their minds and had started discussing a class they had together. Parker, being an even 5'4, couldn't see the majority of the flavors. After trying to jump, lean, squint, and a brief moment when she had the brilliant idea to go up and study the flavors (this earned her a glare or two from an elderly couple trying to order), Parker let out an irritated huff.

"Russ…" she said in a sing-song voice.

He looked down at her. "Yeah?"

She stuck her lower lip out and batted her eyelashes. "Can you read me the flavors? I can't see most of them."

He grinned. "Sure thing, midget."

Kenny smiled as Russ dutifully started reciting all one hundred and eighty-two flavors. Who knew that in only a few weeks' time he would be playing protector to a little bit of a girl, and that he'd have no complaints? When he noticed that Parker was barely paying attention, he leaned down and whispered, "How long ago did you decide what you're getting?"

She grinned, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Eighty-seven flavors ago. I always wind up getting the same thing."

Kenny stared at her. "Which is?"

"French vanilla, rainbow sprinkles, cone."

"I know you just didn't make me go through saying all those flavors just for fun!" Russ' voice sounded like an exasperated father's as he looked at Parker and Kenny. "You're kidding!"

Parker smiled sweetly. "We're next in line! You would've been complaining about waiting the entire time if you weren't reading…"

Russ shrugged. "I give."

* * *

A/N: Hi. Please don't hate me for updating this instead of _Jingle Belle._ I promise, I'm working on it. I completed my student teaching this past winter, so I was up to my eyeballs in work and couldn't get in the writing groove. I know, no excuses. Enjoy! Over and out, Flyinghawk


	4. Part Four

Part Four

"Remind me again why we're going to this?" Connie asked through gritted teeth a few nights later. She had been coaxed from her empty room where she was revising for her Spanish class by her friends from suite 304, who had thrust a flimsy, plastic flowered lei in her hands and suggested she dress accordingly. Next to her, Julie wore loud wave-print board shorts that she swore weren't once a boys' bathing suit and tank top, while Lee had gone so far as to don a plastic coconut bra over a tank top and shorts.

"Because I promised Jared we'd go," Parker said, adjusting her multiple layers of leis and sliding her sunglasses into her hair.

"Yeah, YOU promised," Connie said, sighing. She gestured to her own tank top and shorts. "Do I really have to wear this?"

"Yep!" Parker said. "There's a prize for best costume!"

"The one night that everyone else in my room's gone…" Connie muttered.

"Yeah, been meaning to ask, where's Mara?" Julie asked, throwing open the door to the stairwell. "Haven't seen her since dinner last night."

"She had a lacrosse thing in Vermont this weekend," Connie said. Each team at Moloney was given a budget that they could use doing team bonding activities ranging from retreats to tournaments to dinners to amusements. "And Georgiana went off with some of her friends and Daniella… I dunno where she went."

"Fine by me," Parker scowled. Daniella was a subject that

"Betcha I'll win this costume prize," Lee crowed, shimmying around the corridor as they thundered down the stairs. "No one else will have gotten a coconut bra, betcha anything!"

When they arrived in the lounge, however, it was plain to see that Lee was wrong. Among many coconut-bra wearing girls (and a couple of boys), there were students dressed in obnoxiously loud Hawaiian print shirts, lots of grass skirts, and even a boy and girl dressed as a banana and a pineapple.

"You came!" Jared yelled over the music, dancing his way over to them and handing them all smoothies. "Whaddya think?"

Parker looked around at the mayhem surrounding them. She could see Neil, the RA from the West Side second floor, among a network of speakers and a laptop, while a couple of boys that she recognized from the other side of the West Side third floor hovered around the refreshment table. Emily Pak was teaching a group to hula along to she music, and a bunch more were playing Twister and other board games at tables and the floor over next to the food table.

"Looks pretty sweet," she replied, grinning up at him. "Wanna play Twister?"

Jared ran a hand through his hair and looked over at the game. It was plain to see that the people who were playing weren't going to be for much longer. The girl in charge of spinning was doubled over from laughing and the four on the mat were holding on with every shred of willpower they had.

"Sure, let's make a line." He turned to Julie, Lee, and Connie. "You ladies care to join us?"

Connie and Lee agreed immediately; Julie took a bit more convincing. "C'mon, Julieeee," Parker pleaded, tugging on her arm. "You can be the spinner if you want, you don't even have to be on the mat!"

Julie considered this. "All right…" She pulled out her iPhone. "But I get to post whatever pictures I want!"

"Done," Jared said, shaking her hand. "Let's roll!"

"Go! Go! Go!" Goldberg yelled over Dean Portman's shoulder. "Get him!"

* * *

Friday night, and the majority of the male Ducks were crowded into Charlie, Adam, Guy, and Goldberg's room at Brady Dormitory, fixated on the television screen as their Mario Kart characters raced around the track.

"Hahaha, sorry Portman!" Charlie crowed, leaning with his on-screen counterpart to the left. "Fulton, where the fuck are you?"

"Language!" Adam said irritably from the privacy of his desk. While he could have been attempting German homework, Adam had given up conjugation and was trying to concentrate on reading for his English Composition course. He was just waiting for the moment that one of the guys discovered that he had to read Shakespeare. Not that his reputation was at stake, but he didn't need to provide them with more to make fun of him for.

"Sorry mom," Fulton threw over his shoulder. "Are we disturbing your beauty sleep?"

"No," Adam said wearily. "But it's almost quiet hours. We don't want a repeat of last Friday, do we?"

A chorus of groans rose up amongst the players and spectators. The previous Friday they'd gathered, one of the passing public safety officers had knocked with the suspicion of a party going on. He hadn't seemed too convinced that they hadn't been drinking, and it was an experience that Adam had no intentions of repeating.

"Calm down, Mother Duck," Portman said breezily. "It's all good." He exchanged a knowing grin with Fulton and Russ.

"What's that look for?" Adam asked suddenly. He sprang up from his chair. "Guys. What are you planning?"

"We're not planning anything," Russ said sweetly.

Adam folded his arms across his chest. "I know better than that, Russ. Something's up."

"Adam, Adam," Averman piped up, holding a bag of Cheetos. "Cheesy processed goodness?" When he didn't, he deposited the bag in Kenny's lap. The Asian boy let out a yelp of protest, then shrugged and helped himself to some Cheetos.

The blond boy threw his hands up in disgust and returned to his desk. "If you get into some kind of trouble, don't blame me and don't call me to help you out."

"Whatever you say, Cake-eater." Fulton and Portman high-fived each other.

A while later, Guy surrendered his Wii remote to Kenny. "Gotta go, guys. Connie wants to meet up at the snack bar." Ignoring the loud catcalls from the Bash Brothers, he gathered his sweatshirt and slipped out with, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

* * *

"I can't believe you pushed me!" Lee howled with laughter as she made her way towards the snack bar with Parker, Julie, Connie, and Jared. She glared accusingly at Jared. "You were just upset because I was winning!"

"You caught me," Jared winked at Parker as he held the door open for them. The dining hall, Hamm Café, had a portion open for all hours of the night for late-night snacking purposes. The Red Dish was a popular place for people to grab milkshakes or pints of Ben & Jerry's.

"Oooh, look, there's Guy!" Connie made her way through a crowd of students milling around towards the booths, where her boyfriend Guy was waiting.

"Hey guys," Guy said easily, scooting over so Connie could sit next to him. "Wow, I didn't realize there were so many of you."

"We can pull up some chairs," Jared offered, scooting a couple chairs from a nearby table over. He slid one towards Lee and took one for himself. Julie and Parker took the other half of the booth.

"How's your night been going?" Connie asked Guy. Between being in Parker, Lee, and Julie's room with Mara and being with Guy, Connie had managed to spend as little time as possible around Daniella and Georgiana.

"Played Mario Kart with the guys," he shrugged. "Portman, Russ, and Fulton have some harebrained plan to prank Banksie at some point."

Julie groaned. "Not again!"

Lee raised her eyebrows. "What'd Banks do?"

Jared held up a large hand. "Wait, are you talking about Adam Banks? Blond kid, kinda preppy, hockey nut?"

Guy nodded. "Know him?"

Jared laughed. "No way! Man, his older brother Jeffrey is my sister Jenna's fiancé! He's a decent kid." He glanced at Lee. "Hey, wanna go get a milkshake?"

Lee grinned. "Do I ever!" They wandered off.

"Aww," Connie cooed, snuggling into Guy's shoulder. "Wouldn't it be cute if they got together?" She glanced at her RA and friend, trying to figure out what kind of milkshake to get.

Julie nodded. "Yeah. But…" She turned to Parker. "I could've sworn he had a thing for you?"

Parker shrugged. "He's like my older brother. He's cool, but I dunno if I'd date him."

"Good thing, too, Harris," a smooth voice came from behind them. Parker whirled around. "Seeing's how he's famous among the upperclassmen for his own personal brand of welcome for the freshmen," a tall boy with dark, expertly styled hair sneered.

"What do you know about him?" Julie glared at him.

"He was my roommate freshman year, sweetcheeks," the boy said airily. "Let's just say I wrote the book on being sexiled. Not that I didn't get him back, of course. Slept with his best friend. Taught that little bitch a lesson."

"You're exaggerating," Connie snapped. "Jared's a nice guy!"

"Uh-uh-uh, girlie. You may want to tell your friend to watch it… or at least use a condom." He shuddered as he adjusted the collar on his pink polo shirt. "She doesn't look like she could handle the host of diseases he's got."

"Spreading rumors about me again, Erik?" Jared's voice came from behind him. Erik turned and waved cheekily.

"Awww, lovemuffin, did you miss me?" The boy called Erik asked breathlessly as Jared and Lee slid into their chairs.

"Like a bad case of the sniffles," Jared muttered. "I thought you had better things to do."

"And better people," Erik laughed. "Sweetie, I'm just letting your little friends know what to look out for. Sometimes the Big Bad Wolf hides in sheep's clothing!" His eyes sparkled knowingly. "Ta-ta!" He flounced out the door.

"What a douche," Jared muttered moodily, stirring his chocolate milkshake. He looked up, and saw the silent group around him. "Whatever he told you… whatever he said-"

"-Is bullshit," Parker finished. Connie and Guy studied her closely. "We believe you." And even if she wasn't a hundred percent sure, Lee's grateful smile was worth it.

* * *

"Hey! Hey! Wake up! C'mon!"

Parker's eyes fluttered open, and she squinted at her watch. _What's Lee doing up at 8:30 on a Saturday? _she thought. She rolled over, and peeked through the wooden rail of her bed.

"Wake up!" Lee said cheerfully. "Want to come hiking with me and Jared and Julie and Adam? We're going to get breakfast and then we're going to go climb a mountain!"

"It's eight-thirty in the morning," Parker informed her as she slid down to the floor. She tugged her t-shirt, a souvenir from a Rhode Island kids' baseball tournament, down. "Any other day you'd be asleep."

"I know, I know!" Lee crowed gaily, bustling around and packing a backpack with Band-Aids, a water bottle, socks, and a bathing suit and towel. "Jared and I talked until really early this morning, and he asked if we wanted to go hiking with him today! Since Julie woke up when I came in-"

"-Yeah, at three-thirty in the morning," Julie grumbled. She was already dressed in a gray long-sleeve shirt, blue shorts, black leggings, and sneakers. She was zipping up her own backpack, tugging on a red pullover fleece. "I had to pee. If it had been my choice, I'd have been asleep."

"How'd Adam get roped into it?" Parker asked, pulling on a pair of black shorts and a blue long-sleeve shirt.

"You're gunna want to layer more than that," Lee advised her. "Jared said it can get cold at the top of the mountain we're hiking."

Parker nodded sleepily and yanked her shorts off, pulling her UnderArmor from softball on. "So. Adam?"

"Yeah, he and I were comparing answers for our German homework-" Julie started.

"-Only you would pick a language that sounds ridiculous when you speak it," Lee interrupted. She held up her iPod. "Yes or no?"

"Wouldn't hurt," Julie answered, glaring at her. "Anyway, Adam and I were comparing answers for our homework and he asked if it was cool if he hung out with us today." She smiled. "I think living with Conway is starting to get to him."

"Uh huh," Lee said, looking at Julie in awe. "I always wondered how he managed it. Thought maybe the kid must be a saint."

"It's Banks, not the second coming of Jesus," Julie said, chuckling. "He loses his cool, just like the rest of us."

"Uh huh," Parker said, zipping her black softball NorthFace. "Ready to hike!" She swung her backpack onto her shoulder.

"Breakfast first," Julie said, ushering her and Lee towards the door.

* * *

Bacon. Parker had no idea why fried pig behind that oozed grease was so delicious, and why she was so willing to put it in her mouth in the first place. _Oh well. _She picked up the remaining piece on her plate.

Eyeing her, Julie snorted. "You know you can't marry it, right?"

Parker opened her eyes, unaware that she'd closed them. "Shut up."

"Hey, is that any way to speak to your roommate? Do I need to get a roommate conflict resolution form?" Jared slid a plate piled with pancakes and bacon onto the table. "Good morning ladies."

The dining hall was almost deserted, which Parker assumed was a typical thing for most Saturday mornings. She knew that the church crowd explained Sundays, but the woman at the scan-in desk had nearly choked on her coffee when she saw their group meander in of their own accord. It was probably the best time to show up to breakfast- everything was hot, there was no waiting for coffee, and nothing had run out. And the bacon was hot. That was the most important part.

According to Jared, the mountain they were set to hike was a short drive from campus- maybe an hour at the most. The hike was a fairly easy one, and many of the geology classes had hiked it in order to gather specimens for observation and analysis.

Because the terrain was so varied and the top half required climbers to navigate around and over boulders, it was aptly named Giant's Playground. At the very top, there was a small lake that had nestled into the façade of the mountains around it.

"I'm so glad I packed my bathing suit," Lee said excitedly, downing her orange juice. "How are we getting there?"

"Buela," Jared answered proudly, dangling his keys. Parker noticed that he had a 'save the pandas' keychain, something she found absolutely adorable. "It's a '97 Dodge Caravan. It'll fit everyone, no sweat."

"Well, it's 9:15 now," Julie said, checking her watch. "If it takes an hour to get there, then we'll be hiking around 10:15 or so. How long to the top?"

"It's about two hours. Wanna sweet-talk the scan-in lady and see if we can sneak out some food for a mini-picnic?" Jared flashed a grin.

"When's Adam getting here?" Lee asked, standing up with her plate. The rest followed suit, and followed her to the dish window. "I can go make peanut butter sandwiches and snag some apples if you wanna see if you can get some granola?"

Adam appeared then at the scan-in desk, a yawning Kenny in tow. Both were dressed in shorts, sneakers, and fleece pullovers, and carrying backpacks.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Adam said hurriedly. "Is it okay if Ken comes with us? He was sitting on my futon when I woke up this morning."

Kenny shot him a dirty look. "Dude, I already told you, I think Russ and Dom were hooking up when I went back to my room last night!"

Lee, Parker, and Julie exchanged sly grins. "Russ and Dom?" They chorused.

"How do you know?"

"What did you hear?"

"No WONDER she didn't come back last night!"

"I wondered where she was!"

"Are you sure she was there?" Parker pressed dubiously. "I don't think she's the kind of girl to just… you know…"

"I mean, I wasn't there like in there there, but it sounded like her voice," Kenny said, flushing.

"Ugh," Adam said, frowning at his teammate. "You were listening? That's so creepy!"

Kenny pushed him good-naturedly. "Not like that… Banks, don't be a douche." He looked over at Parker. Giving her his rendition of puppy-dog eyes, he pouted and asked, "You believe me, don't you?"

Parker held her hands up in defense. "I'm saying nothing." She dug around in her fleece pocket for her phone, a beat-up red LG Shine. "I am, however, going to send Dom a text." She grinned. "See if she won't fess up on her own."

She quickly typed a text out that said, _Hey roomie, where'd you end up last night? Hope you had a good time! ;) _and hit Send.

"I hope she texts you back," Lee said. She looked up at Jared. "You were sweet-talking?"

"I was," Jared said. He turned and made his way over to the desk. The little older woman who usually sat behind it every morning put down her newspaper as he spoke to her, and soon he had her laughing and waving her hands around as she told him a story.

Adam and Kenny took the opportunity to scarf some breakfast while the girls made peanut butter sandwiches. Julie put a stack of apples in her backpack, and Lee had managed to obtain some plastic baggies from one of the other little older ladies who worked in the kitchen. Soon several bags of granola joined the apples.

When everything was all packed and Adam and Kenny were finished, they headed for Jared.

"Well you all have fun and be careful, you hear?" the scan-in woman, whose nametag read 'Eloise' said. Her blue eyes twinkled from behind thick frames. "S'posed to be a storm later, don't want you getting caught in it."

"We'll be careful," Lee said, grinning at her friends. "We promise!"

* * *

The sun was shining on their path as they made their way up the mountain, Jared leading the way with a walking stick he'd picked up at the bottom. Here and there Julie would point out different kinds of birds. This led to a lot of good-natured ribbing from the rest of the group.

"So… many… boulders," Lee fake wheezed. Her eyes were dancing. "Banksie, make the giant stop for an apple!" She flopped onto a boulder and slid her pack from her shoulders.

Adam shook his head. "Hey Jared," he called up to the front. "Wanna take five?"

Julie picked a rock to sit on and started doling out apples. Parker took hers and bit into it happily, sitting down next to Kenny. He nudged her playfully as he took a swig from his Nalgene bottle.

"How much further to the top?" she asked around a mouthful of apple.

"Not far," Jared said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He pointed up the trail. "See these boulders? It means we're almost there. Maybe… fifteen, twenty minutes or so?"

Julie nodded. "Sweet." She turned to Lee, who was about to throw her apple core into the woods. "Don't!" she said sharply.

Lee turned to her, wide-eyed. "What? It's bio-degradable."

"The squirrels will choke on the core," Julie explained. She pulled out an empty plastic bag. "Put them in here, we'll toss them when we get back." She handed the bag to Jared, who'd finished his apple.

* * *

Twenty or so minutes later, after a near-miss on a boulder that resulted in Adam catching Lee, they reached the top. As promised, it was beautiful, with a clear lake that rippled when the wind blew across the water.

Julie immediately took out her camera, and ordered the group to pose for a picture. They took a normal one, and then because Parker began a sneezing jag, Adam suggested doing a funny one. Lee and Jared crossed their eyes and did bunny ears, while Kenny puffed his cheeks like a monkey and Adam stuck out his tongue.

"Well," Lee declared, putting her hands on her hips and looking out across the water to a small island in the center of the lake, "We're not getting any younger." She dug her swimsuit out of her backpack, and proceeded to wrap her towel around her.

Julie and Parker watched in awe as the runner managed to change into her swimsuit without so much as flashing a knee or batting an eye.

"How the fuck did you do that?" Parker asked incredulously as her roommate pranced around in a blue striped bikini.

"Practice," Lee answered, running over to the water's edge. "My family has a house in the Hamptons, and with all my cousins around I learned to do it and do it quickly."

"That's what she said!" Julie snickered. Lee kicked water at her. "I'm going to go change behind this really big boulder."

"I'm after you!" Parker called. She turned to the boys. "You should be able to pull off Lee's towel trick just fine, so I get the rock."

Shrugging, Jared suited up with no problem. After shuffling a bit, Adam and Kenny followed, stripping off their t-shirts and tossing them to the side to mingle with Jared's.

"Ow, ow!" Julie whistled, coming back from behind the boulder dressed in a red one-piece. "Working out in the off-season, Banks?"

Adam blushed. His chest was nicely chiseled, the result of a lot of free time during the summer in between pick-up hockey with the Ducks and his summer job interning with his father's law firm. A smattering of blond hair led from his bellybutton into the waistband of his shorts and Julie had to admit, he looked damned fine.

Kenny and Jared weren't difficult to look at either. Jared had the tall, goofy thing working for him, and his biceps were deliciously in shape, while Kenny had the traces of a six-pack and a slim build.

After Parker returned in a gray racerback tankini, she and Julie went down to the shore. Lee had held off swimming until everyone was ready, but as soon as they started down, she waded in, swearing like a sailor with each step.

"It's not that bad!" Parker shot at her roommate, wading in easily and dunking under. She turned to the boys, water dripping into her eyes. "Coming in or waiting for a gold invitation?"

Grinning, Jared and Kenny made a dash for the water, shoving each other out of the way. Adam let them have at it, and instead started climbing the rocks around the shore, searching for a high point.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Jared called up to him as he tread water.

Adam shook his head and continued climbing. When he reached the point he wanted, he glanced down at the RA. "Check and see how deep it is there, will you?"

Jared immediately dunked under. A few moments later, he resurfaced. "It's pretty deep here," he reported back. "What're you going to do?"

"No big rocks?" Adam pressed, swinging his legs over the ledge.

"Not that I can see," Jared replied.

Nodding more to himself than anything, Adam stood up and dove gracefully into the water. When he surfaced, he shook his hair back out of his eyes and grinned. "Not bad," he said. "Race you to the island!" He took off with a powerful crawl stroke that would've made Dominique's coach proud.

"The kid's nuts!" Jared muttered, but he followed suit anyway, his height making up for lost feet.

"Whaddya say, ladies?" Parker said, eyeing the island. "Not that far off."

"What am I, chopped liver?" Kenny said indignantly.

"Ooops, sorry Kenny!" She clapped a hand over her mouth and giggled.

Kenny nodded and rolled his eyes sarcastically. "I see how it is, Harris. So much history between us and I don't even register on your radar."

Julie laughed. "She's always hanging out with you, Ken," she said, floating around on her back.

"I'd say it's the opposite," Lee chirped, grinning mischievously.

"Okay, okay, enough," Parker said, splashing the runner. "Shouldn't you be catching up to lover-boy out there?" Squinting, they could see that Adam and Jared had nearly reached the island.

"Eh," Lee said, waving a hand. "Let the men do the competitive stuff, let the ladies lounge around."

"Hey! Still here!" Kenny whined. "Still a guy!"

"Last time you checked," Julie grinned.

Kenny stood up. "Do I need to pull my pants down and prove it?" he asked irritably, grasping the waistband of his shorts.

"No, I'm good, I believe you!" Parker shrieked, swimming towards him. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. "I promise, I believe you."

"Okay," Kenny said moodily, sinking back down into the water. He looked at Parker and flashed a smile. "If you say so."

"It makes you wonder, doesn't it, Cat Lady?" Lee said conversationally, kicking about on her back.

"It does," Julie agreed, exchanging a knowing smirk.

"What?" Parker and Kenny said slowly, looking at each other and then at the others.

"If Kenny just really wants to take his pants off around Parker," Lee crowed happily, enjoying the scarlet flush that immediately sprang to Parker's face.

"If you have something we'd all enjoy, Ken, by all means, share with the class," Julie said slyly. She took mental note of the nervous glances in Parker's direction and the scowl on Kenny's face- a sure sign that she'd hit a nerve. This would be good information for Charlie, who always liked to know details like this.

"Look!" Kenny pointed to the island across the lake in an attempt to take the attention off himself. "Jared beat Banks!"

"No," Julie breathed, whirling around. Sure enough, Jared was doing a victory dance on the beach as Adam continued swimming. She turned back to Kenny. "He hates losing."

And it wasn't that he hated losing, but Adam Banks was incredibly competitive- that was the real reason he and Charlie were best friends, after all. They had a competitive edge that drove them in whatever it was that they put their minds to. For Charlie, it was more or less an ego thing, where a win built up his ego. For Adam, on the other hand, it was a measurement of personal worth. If he lost, it meant that he had failed himself. He didn't like doing that.

* * *

By the time they got dried off they were hungry again. Ever-prepared Julie produced the pile of sandwiches they'd made that morning in the dining hall, and they sun-dried as they ate. After finishing his sandwich and making sure the wrapper was back in the bag, Jared stretched out on his towel, folding his arms behind his head and sighing contentedly.

Lee quickly followed suit, taking the opportunity to use his exposed stomach as a pillow. He absentmindedly stroked her long brown hair as they dozed.

Beside them, Adam let out a sigh that sounded more like a groan. Lee cracked an eye open. "You okay?"

Writhing around and fussing with his towel, he pulled out a rock the size of a quarter. "Rock."

Parker giggled, and spread her towel out next to him. "The Princess and the Pea, everyone," she said, shooting Adam a grin. When he scowled, she ruffled his hair playfully. "Sorry Blondie."

Lee settled back down next to Jared and said, "Shut up, you two. Take a siesta."

* * *

When Kenny opened his eyes again, it was because something had dropped on his face. Muttering what he was going to do if a bird had pooped on him, he sat up and rubbed his cheek. Thankfully devoid of bird feces, he looked up.

Rain clouds.

And, by the looks of the rocks around them, it had already started.

"Uh, guys?"

Parker shifted on her towel, and the position she was in made it look like she and Adam were spooning. "What's up, Kenny?" Behind her, Adam groaned, and looked over her shoulder at the Asian boy.

He pointed. "I hate to break it to you, but I think we're going to get a shower."

Jared sat up suddenly, jostling Lee. "What? Already?"

"What happened?" Lee said, rubbing her eyes. When she opened them, she grimaced. "Oh goody."

Jared quickly started picking up their makeshift camp, throwing his towel into his backpack. Searching for his Nalgene, he handed the other packs to their owners. "We've got to hike down before this gets worse," he said. He held out a hand to Lee and helped her up.

* * *

The hike down wasn't nearly as lighthearted as the hike up- only Lee seemed to be completely unfazed by the possibility of torrential downpour. She skipped down the trail, clambering over the boulders like a monkey. Ahead of her, Jared was walking quickly, all business.

Overhead, the clouds that had pestered them at the lake followed them like a stray puppy, and every few moments sprinkling could be heard in the trees. Parker crossed her fingers that it didn't actually downpour until they were near the bottom.

Once they got past the boulders and onto the hard-packed mud trail, Jared relaxed, throwing jokes back and forth. He teased Adam about beating him to the island, and Adam chuckled, challenging him to a rematch eventually.

"Careful now," Jared said, slithering around two trees as they navigated a short drop. "It's pretty muddy here, hold onto the trees."

One by one, Julie, Adam, Parker, and Kenny slid through carefully. Lee had stopped to tie her shoe, so she stepped up quickly, taking her around the trees faster than she'd anticipated. Her foot caught on the bud bank, and the hill crumbled. Down she fell, her hand sliding off the tree. She let out a stifled cry.

Jared was back to her in an instant. "What happened?"

"My ankle," she whimpered, tears springing to her eyes. "I heard it snap."

Jared tried not to look too panicked. Turning to the rest of the group, he looked at Julie. "You have a first-aid kit, right?"

Julie stared at him. "Uh, yeah," she said finally, unzipping her backpack. "Right here." She handed it to the basketball player.

He turned to Lee, who had tears running down her face. "Okay, let's see if we can get you up. Maybe you can put some pressure on it?" He helped her up, and Adam and Kenny quickly went around and lifted underneath her shoulders.

She stepped down and her ankle immediately buckled. She howled. "Fuck!" The boys helped her sit again.

"Let me see if I can get an ambulance on the way, at least," Parker said, digging for her cell phone. Finally locating it, she slid it open. "Damn it!"

"Dead?" Kenny said, handing his phone to her.

"No service. Who's your carrier?" She opened his phone. "Oh good, a bar." She turned away and dialed.

Jared took out an Ace bandage from Julie's first-aid kit, and picked up two sturdy-looking sticks. "These will help keep it in place," he said, wrapping slowly. "Kind of like a splint, you know?"

Lee nodded tearfully. Looking up at Adam, she asked quietly, "Are we going to be able to get down?"

Adam took her hand. "We'll make sure we get you to a hospital, don't worry," he said calmly. Julie had to hand it to him; he had a knack for being calm and levelheaded no matter what.

Jared finished wrapping Lee's ankle. "Will you let me try to carry you piggyback?"

Lee paused, then nodded. She wiped her face on her sleeve.

"Help me get her up," Jared said to Kenny and Adam. Together, they got her standing, and Jared leaned down. "Can you reach my shoulders?"

"I'm not as short as Parker," Lee said, managing a watery smile. She grabbed his shoulders. "Okay, hold on, I just need to-" Jared stood, and she slid sideways. "Hold on, hold on!" she shrieked. She swung her leg up. "Okay."

"So, I have good news and bad news," Parker said, handing the phone back to Kenny. She looked over at Jared and Lee. "I'm sorry, bud, but the lady on the phone said, quote, 'Unless you can get her down, we can't transport her' unquote." She looked at Jared, who was scowling. "They also said they weren't sure where we were, so if we didn't hear back from them within an hour, to just assume they weren't coming."

"That's ridiculous!" Jared said angrily. "They seriously said that?"

"No joke," Parker nodded. "So, the good news is, there might be an ambulance coming."

Jared turned his face so he could see Lee clutching at his neck out of the corner of his eye. "Okay, so, do you trust me to try and get you down the mountain? We've got maybe an hour's walk ahead of us."

"Mmhmm," Lee said, fidgeting. "As long as you don't drop me."

* * *

Russ stared at Dominique. She stared back. They simultaneously sipped their coffee. Next to them, Averman was shoveling his lunch like nothing was up. Charlie was too busy checking out the girls from the track team at the next table over to throw any crude comments their way. He winked at a particularly busty brunette, who smiled back.

It was finally Goldberg who broke the silence. Abandoning his BLT, he looked at the Californian. "Hey man," he said, swatting Russ. "What the hell's your problem?"

Dominique smirked at Russ. Russ finally tore his gaze away from hers and narrowed his eyes at the goalie. "It's none of your business, Goldberg!"

Goldberg nodded sarcastically. "Right, right." He resumed eating his sandwich, glaring at Russ.

"So," Dominique said conversationally, picking at her brownie. "What do I tell my nosybody roommates?"

"Tell who what?" Averman said, finally paying attention to the conversation. "What about?"

"Nothing, Averman," Russ replied, not taking his eyes off of Dominique. "What d'you wanna tell them?"

"They're going to find out eventually," Dominique sighed, chewing thoughtfully. Her brown eyes widened. "I didn't mean that like it's a bad thing!" She stopped. "You know they probably already know. Might as well make it public." She smiled.

"What?" Charlie asked, turning around. He'd lost interest when the track team left and the polo team replaced them. Granted, some of them were good looking, but there was something about horsey people. He shuddered. He smirked at Russ and Dominique. "You mean about you two doing the horizontal tango last night?"

Russ blanched.

"What do you know?" Dominique demanded.

Charlie grinned at her. He waved his phone at her. "Lee and Parker texted me. Apparently a certain member of the team went back to his room and did a Figure 8 when he heard what was going on inside."

Russ frowned. "Kenny. That rat bastard."

* * *

Dwayne threw his pencil down in dismay. He'd never get through this much ecology homework for Monday! He flipped back in his notebook and counted. 12 pages of notes for one chapter! He looked around the common room. At least it was cozy. There were tables for studying, a pool table, couches and a large television, where a group of girls were crowded around at the moment, watching _America's Next Top Model._ He was in the perfect spot to people watch and look out the window onto the green below.

Finally he stood up, digging around in his back pocket for his wallet. He walked over to the vending machine and studied his options. He selected E-4, and grinned when the machine spat out his drink.

"Gotta love me some root beer," he murmured happily. He twisted the cap off and took that delicious first sip. He stared at his books, and resolved to finish before dinnertime.

* * *

Parker was soaked. They'd been walking for at least an hour, very slowly so Jared had the best possible tread underneath him, and the heavens opened up. Next to her, Julie was shivering as she made her way down a particularly trying piece of trail.

Adam stopped and squinted through the rain at his friends. It was getting too slippery for him to navigate, let alone allow Jared to try with Lee on his back. Lee, to her credit, hadn't said much in the past hour about her foot hurting, but Adam could tell that it hurt. A lot. It had swollen at least twice the size, and Adam didn't have to be a doctor to tell that it was definitely broken.

"Guys, it's getting bad," Adam finally said. He looked around, and spotted a group of boulders. "We need to wait it out."

"Are you sure?" Jared asked, shifting Lee.

"Unless you wanna fall yourself, it would be safer to see if the storm passes," Adam said tightly. He pointed to the boulders. "We can hang out there, the bigger rock has a little nook that'll be dry."

Jared nodded, and they made their way towards the rocks. Julie spread her towel down on the ground, and Parker put hers over it. Jared eased Lee down, and the two girls made her as comfortable as possible. Lee looked up at them.

"This sucks."

* * *

A/N: Not going to lie, this exact same scenario happened this year to me and my friends at school. Ironically (and definitely not intentionally), the girl who wound up breaking her ankle in two places is named Leigh. I promise, I'm hard at work on the chapters, and I even have some mapped out. How's that for having my ducks in a row? Haha. Review! Over and out, Flyinghawk


	5. Part Five

Part Five

Adam Banks was not happy.

For one, one of his best friends' roommates had a broken ankle somewhere on a mountain. It was raining so hard he couldn't see three feet in front of him. The buffoon of an RA who suggested this love-fest was currently leading a game of 'I'm Going on a Picnic.' Stupid game. On his other side, another one of his best friends was sneaking glances at the other roommate. Stupid Kenny.

He folded his arms and glared out at the rain, ignoring his shivering body.

Outside the small indentation they had taken cover in, the rain continued to come down in buckets. It was turning into a colder rain- unlike the beginning of the storm, which had been more like a warm summer rain, it had taken on the chill one usually associated with November storms.

It was cold.

Parker tucked her chin into the crook of her arm and blew out her breath. This warmed her face slightly for a couple of blissful seconds. She pulled her knees in closer and breathed out slowly. From somewhere inside a pocket, her cell phone vibrated.

Fumbling for the phone, she opened it with a puzzled look on her face. Her eyes scanning the message, her lips quickly broke into a smile. She turned and addressed the group. "Hey, guess what?"

"What?" Lee asked, lip quivering. Jared pulled her closer to him.

"I just got a text from Dominique. She must've sent it hours ago! It says," –here she paused for dramatic effect, "'Got your text, much to tell you when you get back. Tell Kenny that Russ says he's a rat bastard and yes, we've updated our statuses on facebook.'" She closed her phone. "I guess that answers that question."

Kenny groaned beside her. "Great."

"What, are you going to get beaten when you get back?" Parker teased, ruffling his hair. Kenny opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it. He settled for looking at Parker innocently.

"At least someone's day is going the way they planned," Adam ground out quietly.

"Ease up, Banks," Julie said, nudging his shoulder with hers. "It could be worse."

"Oh yeah?" The blond glared at her. "Tell me, I'm dying to know."

"We could have to stay the night in this shithole."

"I wouldn't count that out just yet," Jared piped up. When the two hockey players turned to look at him with identically irate expressions, he smiled weakly. "We only have an hour of daylight left, and it doesn't look like the rain's letting up any."

Adam looked furious.

* * *

"I wonder where they are," Dominique wondered out loud as she played with Russ' hair. He was pretending to read for his economics class as they shared a couch in the lounge, but she knew better. He would steal glances over at her whenever he thought she wasn't looking, something she thought was adorable.

"I'm sure they're around here somewhere," Russ said vaguely, turning a page.

"They said they'd be back for dinner, though," Dominique persisted, checking her phone. "It's nearly dinner now."

"So they stopped for some ice cream," Russ said. He turned towards the swimmer. "Relax, Dom, they'll be back soon."

"Something doesn't feel right," she muttered, snuggling into his side. She flipped on the television. "How do you feel about _Say Yes to the Dress?"_

Russ resisted the urge to groan.

* * *

Charlie Conway was resisting the urge in another way.

He'd gotten up at the crack of noon (okay, ten), and, after scarfing a chocolate bar he knew Banks kept in his sock drawer, he'd decided to go to the Lipinski Recreation Center to skate. The rinks were usually open on weekends, and he figured he could work on some puck-handling on his own.

Christ, he was _turning into_ Banks.

After skating back and forth, just enjoying the occasional shards of ice flying and the feel of his stick in his hands, he'd wandered into their locker room around noon, and came to the conclusion that they had turned it into an absolute dump.

Not that it was that nice when it had been given to them after Moloney Academy had cut the second men's basketball team from their program, but he could see his teammates' padding all around the room, and one of the benches had been overturned by Fulton during the last practice when Averman had started singing the Backstreet Boys and pissed him off. A pair of underwear, not sure whose precisely, was handing off one of the overhead lamps. The paint was peeling. The bulletin board by the hallway leading to the coaches' office had seen better days. Their coach, a tall redheaded man with a beard named Joshua McElvaine, who had quickly won over the team with his easygoing and laid-back attitude, along with his affinity for AC/DC and Aerosmith, had commented briefly on the state of disrepair the locker room was in.

Charlie took in the general detritus and nodded, more to himself than anything, and quickly changed his clothes.

After a quick stop back to his room for his hat, Charlie sprinted up to the fifth floor. He rapped on the door for Suite 515.

"Goldberg!" he called impatiently, "Open up!"

The door cracked open, and a pale, skinny boy with glasses answered. "Who are you?"

"Who're you?" Charlie shot back, giving the boy a once-over. "Where's Goldberg?"

"Is that Guy, Greg, or Günter?" the skinny boy persisted.

Charlie groaned inwardly. "Does that mean you have a G-name too?"

"Oh, hey Charlie," the goalie in question greeted his captain. Toting a canvas bag and a container of detergent, it was apparent that he'd been doing laundry. "Gus. Get out of the way, you're blocking the door!"

He barreled into the room, leaving his nosy roommate almost knocked over on the edge of the doorframe.

"Goldie, I need a ride," Charlie said hastily, his eyes flicking around the room. He could pick out Goldberg and Guy's side of the room without even trying- they both had the team photo of the Ducks at the Goodwill Games on their dressers, and their section of the room was plastered with hockey-related paraphernalia.

"Where do you need to go?" the goalie asked suspiciously. He held up his hands. "Listen, Charlie, I'm not giving Banks a man-over again! Remember what his reaction was the last time?"

Charlie paused. He remembered that- it was senior year at Eden Hall, and Adam had just been dumped by the girl he'd been seeing since the year before, Carly something or another. He'd accidentally seen her and her roommate making out in the campus library study carrels, and had spent the better part of a holiday weekend moping about, whining about how he'd managed to turn a girl away from men completely after dating him. Charlie had seen the center's misery as an opportunity to free him from the sweater-vested life he led and into the land of normal teenage boys- t-shirts and the occasional hoodie.

Needless to say, Banks hadn't appreciated the work his captain had put into saving his appearance, and he didn't like the fact that everyone else hadn't seen any reason to stop him from doing it.

"That was for his own good!" Charlie protested. He grinned. "He was kind of a spaz about it, wasn't he?"

Goldberg nodded. "A little, yeah," he said, rolling his eyes. He pulled a shirt out and started folding. "Where we going?"

"We are going to the nearest Home Depot," Charlie said, pulling out a pair of red boxers with little white Cupids on them. He stretched them out and wrinkled his nose. "What are these supposed to be?"

"My underwear, obviously," Goldberg snapped, yanking the offending fabric away from the captain and stuffing them into the top drawer of his dresser.

"You do have an obscene number of patterned boxers," Gus interrupted from across the room. He was sitting at his desk, and Charlie could see an online role-playing game that Averman used to play on pause on the screen behind him.

"You are an observant one, aren't you?" Charlie said snidely to the other boy. "What sport do you play, Gus-Gus?"

"And I'd prefer that it just be Gus, because when I hear Gus-Gus I'm reminded of Cinderella and the fat mouse," was the hesitant reply. "I'm on the cross-country team."

"Ah," Charlie said, clasping his hands together. "Gotcha."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gus demanded.

Charlie grinned at Goldberg, who sighed and picked up his keys resignedly. "_Come on_, Chuck," the dark-haired boy said finally. "If you're good in the store, I'll buy you a cookie."

"Ooh, will it be chocolate chip?" Charlie practically skipped out of the room. "Later, Gus-Gus!"

* * *

An hour later, Charlie was miles ahead of Goldberg, who had been reduced to pushing a cart teeming with a myriad of materials around Home Depot. The captain hadn't shared his vision with the goalie, merely saying that he was going to be doing some 'home improvement.'

It was with that explanation that Goldberg forbid him to buy a skil saw. Banks would be proud.

"Charlie, wait up!" the larger boy shouted, pushing the cart as quickly as he dared without fearing that he would run into something. When he finally caught up with the taller boy, he was looking at paint chips.

"Which one?" Charlie asked, holding up two different shades of red.

"For what?" Goldberg could feel the beginnings of a massive headache coming on.

"Moloney red. Which one?" He thrust the two paint samples at him again.

"Uh… God, Charlie, I don't know, why didn't you ask Connie or Julie or Banks to help you?" Goldberg whined.

Charlie fixed his teammate with a stare. "Well… Banks and Julie are off hiking with Kenny and some of Julie's roommates, and Connie's probably macking it up with Guy… and I haven't hung out with you outside of practice."

Goldberg sighed. Deep down, Charlie was a decent guy, and one of his best friends. It really wasn't his fault that he hadn't matured past the mindset of a thirteen year old.

Sensing that he'd appealed to the goalie's better nature, Charlie shot him the patented shit-eating grin he was known for. "So… which one?"

When Goldberg glared at him, Charlie had to resist the urge to laugh.

* * *

Dwayne dropped his books on his desk in a heap, which woke Averman out of a dead sleep. Having finished the reading for the anthropology class he had with Parker and Kenny earlier than he'd expected, he'd decided to take a nap.

That hadn't been intended to last until dinnertime.

"Aww, Averman, I'm real sorry," Dwayne apologized to his roommate. He looked around. "I saw Russ and his lady love in the lounge earlier, thought maybe they'd come back up here."

"Haven't seen 'em," Averman said, climbing down his bed and adjusting his glasses. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ken either today."

Dwayne frowned. It was nearly dinnertime. Normally on the weekends the Ducks tried to eat all together, with at least one of Julie's roommates joining them. It was interesting how well the sub-groups had meshed- Parker seemed to be friendly with Russ, Kenny, and Adam, while Lee had gravitated towards Goldberg and Averman… and it was now obvious which Duck Dominique preferred.

"Speaking of Russ and Dom," Averman started slowly, "Did you come back to the room last night?"

"Naw," Dwayne said, waving a hand. "I wound up stayin' with Goldberg and Guy in their room."

"Was Connie there?" Averman asked.

Dwayne nodded. "It's weird to think they all live apart, you know? They've been together since pee-wees, right?"

Averman nodded, smiling. "They have. It's mildly impressive."

Dwayne cocked his head to the side. "Wait, were y'all here when Russ had his lady friend over?"

Averman looked at the cowboy in horror. "I most certainly was not!" He paused, trying to figure out the most delicate way to say where he was. "I, uh, well… you see…"

Dwayne raised his eyebrows. "I don't see nothin' but you tryin' to explain… where WERE you?"

"Okay, so I might've been sleeping in the lounge," Averman snapped. "Russ and Dom were getting it on, so who am I to interrupt?"

Dwayne nodded. It made sense, but… "WAIT! Y'all slept in the LOUNGE?"

Averman was slightly taken aback by the usually docile cowboy's outburst. But, there he was, looking madder than a hornet. Or a cow that a group of teenagers had tried to tip. He smiled weakly. "Yes?"

While Dwayne began a lecture about how, though the students at Moloney certainly seemed decent enough, it wasn't safe to be sleeping in public, in case someone takes their keys or ID card or their wallet, Averman sank onto the futon feeling incredibly chastened. When he got to the part where anyone can get into the building if they're let in, Dwayne ran out of steam.

"So…" Averman started, clapping his hands in front of him. "Should we call Ken, or just assume he's over with the girls?"

* * *

"What do you think, Goldie?" Charlie beamed at his handiwork. He'd sent Goldberg back to his room after their trip, and had promised to text him the second he was done. In under four hours, he'd managed to single-handedly transform their locker room from a heap to a place he would be proud of.

He'd painted the walls with Moloney red, and sweet-talked his neighbor, a sweet Asian girl named Sara Chen, who he'd found out was a phenomenal artist the first day of school when he accidentally brought one of her boxes into his room and found brushes and oil paint instead of his lucky underwear, into painting a Moloney version of the Ducks emblem from the Goodwill Games and Eden Hall next to the door.

She'd risen to the challenge, and done a beautiful mask and sticks with 'Moloney Academy for the Athletically Inclined' in banner script above and below it. Then she'd painted all of the locker doors black, so when they'd put them back on the hinges they were black with red framing. Charlie had the foresight to get black chalkboard paint instead of black matte, so together they wrote the last name and jersey number for each locker.

They had replaced the bulletin board and posted the team roster and a schedule of their practices and games, important phone numbers, and the number for Goldberg's favorite pizza parlor delivery service. Next to the bulletin board, so it was visible from every angle of the room, Charlie had hung two framed pictures- one of the team with Gordon Bombay, their first coach, right after their victory as freshmen at Eden Hall, and one of Hans.

Charlie had gotten a little quiet after hanging that photo, Sara noticed. Too quiet. She hadn't pressed the matter, but continued to pack her paints, slipping out when she had finished.

When Goldberg walked into the locker room, his jaw had dropped. His eyes drank in all of the work his captain had put into the room, and he was speechless. Never let it be said that Charlie Conway couldn't accomplish something if he put his mind to it.

"This is… wow, Charlie, you did this in four hours?" He couldn't believe it. His eyes stopped on the mural. "I didn't know you could paint."

"I wish that was me!" Charlie chuckled. "I asked my neighbor to paint it."

"Dekes?" Goldberg looked confused. When he was moving in, his father had insisted on introducing himself to every kid and parent he encountered. When they'd finally located the elevator, the Goldbergs had run into another family on their way up to their son's room. Dekes, as the boy's father had introduced him as, was an offensive linebacker for the Moloney football team, and had turned out to be Charlie and Adam's neighbor. Goldberg wasn't one for stereotyping, but he didn't see Dekes as a painter. At all.

"Nah," Charlie shook his head. "Other side. Sara Chen."

Goldberg nodded, then asked slyly, "Is she hot?"

Charlie grinned. "You know it. She's pretty funny, too."

"What does she play?" Goldberg asked. After arriving at Moloney, that question became second nature when meeting new people on campus.

"She's a softball player," Charlie said, flipping a paintbrush in his hand. "Parker says she's a slammin' first baseman."

They turned to leave. Goldberg looked at the locker room once more, and then turned to his friend. "Dude, seriously, this was really decent of you to do for us. Why did you do it?"

Charlie sighed. "I wanted to give us a place that was just ours. You know, Ken and Averman and Russ and Cowboy are the only ones who didn't get placed with new people. I wanted a place that we'd be able to go back to the way things were, without all these extra people around." He caught the goalie's calculating look. "Not saying that I don't like the people we've met… like, Julie's roommates are cool. I'm glad that Russ and Dom got together, and I'm pretty sure either Kenny or Averman has a thing for Parker, but… I miss when it was just us."

Goldberg nodded. "I mean, we're all going to meet new people, Charlie. I mean, hopefully, anyway. At least Connie and Guy have lasted this long, right?"

Charlie shook his head and rolled his eyes. "They're so up and down that it's normal to have to constantly question whether or not they're together."

* * *

Averman usually wouldn't consider himself a worrier. He and Dwayne had met up with Charlie and Goldberg for dinner in the dining hall, where they had found Portman and Fulton sitting with a plate of hot wings in between them and root beer beside them. No one had heard from Adam or Kenny all day, and the note that Ken had left on the whiteboard had said they'd be back for dinner. Averman was, as they say, slightly disconcerned.

Being chatty, like old women in a nursing home, the group had stayed well past the confines of normal mealtime time span, and were observers to the majority of campus trailing in for dinner. Their wayward hiking friends were not among them.

Goldberg, who knew about the side of Averman that made him seem like a concerned grandma, glanced at him over his slice of pie. He'd been quiet for a while, stirring his hot chocolate almost absentmindedly.

"Aves?" Charlie was staring at him.

"Mmmm?"

"You worried?"

Averman stared at the captain. "Um… yeah. A little bit."

Charlie raised his eyebrows. "A little?"

Averman shrugged. "Okay, so maybe a little more… I mean, they were s'posed to be back by now."

"So," Portman said, wiping his mouth with a crumpled-up napkin, "Whaddya say we go look for them?"

"Yeah," Fulton chimed in, leaning across the table. "We know they were going to hike the Giant's Playground, so chances are they're riding out the storm somewhere in between the top and the car."

Dawyne shifted nervously in his chair. "I dunno, guys," he said.

Everyone stared at him.

The Texan blushed uncomfortably under their steely gazes. "It's not that I don't want them home," he started, "But… is it safe for us to go a-lookin' for them? Maybe we should call the authorities or somethin'. Banks'd kill us if'n he knew we were out in this storm."

Charlie nodded. He looked at Portman and Fulton. "Meet us out front."

* * *

Lee was alternating between crying and shivering. The moisture had crept into the small cave, making the air ten degrees colder than it actually was. Her sweatshirt had been soaked through from the rain. At least being cold kept her mind mostly off her broken ankle. Jared had scooped her up and was rocking her back and forth in his arms, whispering softly to her as she buried her face in his broad chest. The storm outside the small cave was still going strong- they had heard what seemed to be several trees crash down around them, so they knew that it was no use trying to make it the rest of the way down until it was over. It had been dark outside for at least two hours, according to Parker's watch, but she wasn't about to admit that to anyone.

Finally Adam broke the silence. "I'm going out there to see if I can get some reception."

Julie lifted her head. Her eyes narrowed. "Banks, not in a fucking hurricane!"

The blond boy glared at her. "I can't not do something, Jules. My phone's the only one that still works. Let me see if I can call someone." He stared at her, as if daring her to stand in his way. He got up, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and moved toward the entrance.

Parker stopped him. Looking up at him with bleary, tired eyes, she said, "Please be careful."

Adam smiled briefly, but his smile stopped when he saw Kenny's expression from across the cave. Throwing his teammate an equally aggressive, albeit confused, look, he stepped into the rain.

"I hope he gets lucky," muttered Parker as she attempted to draw her arms around herself.

"He's Banksie," Kenny said, scooting closer to her. "The only time he's not lucky is in bed."

Parker snorted. She reached down and pulled Kenny's arm around her shoulder, and snuggled in. She might have missed the myriad of expressions that flickered across his face, but Julie didn't.

Outside, the drenched center tucked his cell phone into the hood of his sweatshirt and prayed that someone would answer. After hearing a couple of signals that meant that his call had been dropped, Adam wanted to throw his iPhone in frustration.

_Isn't this thing supposed to be really high-tech?_ He thought of Lee's ankle. Who knew what kind of condition it was in at this point? He thought of Julie and Parker, how cold they must be. He glanced back into the cave, and through the pouring rain he could see Kenny with his arm around the small blonde girl. It dawned on him why Kenny was acting so weird.

He punched the three digits angrily in a last-ditch attempt to contact the EMTs.

And what do you know, that's when someone picked up.

"Hi, yes, my name is Adam Banks, and I'm with the group that called earlier…"

* * *

The ambulance was already parked when a pickup truck and a Jeep rolled up, hockey players spilling out. One glance at the stocky woman in uniform told them all they needed to know- the others were still somewhere on the mountain. She said something from underneath her umbrella, but Charlie couldn't hear her over the rain.

"Start up without me," he told Goldberg, who was busy snapping up a bright yellow raincoat. "I'm gunna see what she wants." One by one, dressed in assorted pieces of raingear, with the exception of Averman, who was dressed in layers of trash bags, they headed for the trails.

"Hi, we're here to look for the group that's stuck on the mountain," Charlie said when he reached the EMT.

She gave him a thin smile. "You and me both, sonny. My team's halfway up, haven't seen any sign of them." She patted him on the shoulder. "You and your friends are better off waiting down here."

The blood drained from Charlie's face. He wiped the excess rain from his eyes and looked back at her. "Do you think they went off the trail? Maybe they found somewhere dry to stay put in… maybe your guys missed them!" The last part came out somewhat desperately.

The woman looked at him with eyebrows raised. It wasn't every day that she was criticized by a kid. "Listen, best I can do is radio my team, tell 'em you're here and think they may have taken shelter somewhere. It's slick going, and you don't know these trails like they do, so going up is a bad idea." In a more sympathetic tone, she said, "I know you're probably worried, sonny, but we'll get them down."

Charlie stuck his chin out. "We're going up after them."

The woman chuckled. "I figured as much. Stubborn thing, aren't you?" She fished a radio out of the back of the ambulance. She pointed to the trail. "I'll let 'em know you're on your way up. Good luck."

Charlie grinned. "Thanks!" He jogged to catch up with the rest of the pack he'd come with.

"Hey!" the woman yelled.

Charlie spun around.

"Got a flashlight?"

Charlie's grin got wider.

Forty-five minutes later, the group hadn't seen any sign of the rescue team or their friends. They were all drenched and getting discouraged, but Averman, in his trash bag getup, refused to entertain any possibility of turning around. Once, Fulton tripped and made some smaller rocks give way, and Charlie was sure that the redhead was going to turn around and kick him down the mountain. Instead he just glared and barked that they needed to keep going.

An hour and a half later, even Averman was beginning to question their effectiveness. When they reached a flat area, Averman stopped. He looked around, flashing his light around in the darkness. Through the rain he could hear someone or something far away, and he'd bet his position on the Moloney Academy hockey team that it was the rescue team.

"Guys, do you hear that?" he said finally.

Fulton cocked his head. "Yeah dude," he said finally. "It's pretty low though, where's it coming from?" He spoke carefully, as if not to upset Averman further.

An idea struck Charlie. "Hey," he said, rubbing his hands together. "Wasn't Banks like, a Boy Scout or something?"

Portman grinned, and he and Fulton exchanged wicked smiles. "Of course he was!"

Dwayne looked confused. "What's wrong with bein' a Boy Scout? I'm an Eagle Scout myself."

"Never mind, Cowboy," Goldberg interrupted. His dark eyes glinted when Averman shone the light near him. "Yeah, Charlie, he's been a Boy Scout since Pee Wees. Why?"

Charlie started pacing, the flashlight he'd gotten from the EMT shining all over the place. "What if they did take shelter? Where would they go?"

Averman squinted through the darkness. "There are boulders everywhere, Charlie," he said finally. "Maybe they found a bunch that kept some space dry?" He shrugged.

Through the trees, they saw the dim beams belonging to the rescue team on their way back down. As they got closer, they saw two burly-looking men and a small, lithe woman in the same uniform they'd seen on the woman at the ambulance.

"Over here!" Charlie waved.

The leader, a tall, rugged dark-haired man who introduced himself as Gary, shook his hand. "You must be the kids' friends that Irene radioed about. Any sign of them?"

Charlie shook his head. "Nothing. One of them, Adam, he was a Boy Scout, so we think he might've figured out a place to wait out the rain."

The man behind Gary snorted. "We figured that one out for ourselves, Carmen Sandiego."

Gary glared at him. "Shut up, Schmidt." He turned back toward the Ducks. "I know of three areas that he might have seen, but it would've had to be still light out. It's gunna be hell trying to find them in the dark."

"We're going to, right?" Averman pushed past Charlie to stare at the EMT. "Listen, man, these are our friends… we've got to find them."

Gary grinned. "The first one's at the two hour mark, and then down from there. It's possible that we missed them. So, we'll go up as a group, come down as a group. It'll be me and…" -he pointed at Averman- "…Your name, buddy?"

"Averman," he ground out around a shiver.

"Right. It's me and Averman in front, you big boys and the kid in the cowboy hat with Janie in the middle, and then Charlie and your other buddy there in back with Schmidt. And Charlie?"

"Yeah?" Charlie nodded.

Gary flicked his light over to the captain. "If he gives you any issues, push him down the mountain."

Schmidt blanched.

* * *

"How can all of their phones be off?" Russ demanded, throwing his phone at the couch in the lounge angrily. He immediately regretted it, as his precious Blackberry bounced off the cushion and fell open when it made contact with the floor.

"I don't know," Dominique said quietly from the chair. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears, and her typically long nails had long since been shredded to pieces. "What if they're hurt? What if something happened? A car accident? Wouldn't someone have called us by now if something like that had happened?"

Russ shrugged. For once in his life, he had no sarcastic comment. This was scary. His friends, the kids he'd moved halfway across the country to play with, were missing in the middle of a storm on a mountain. Where he was from it was more likely that people get shot. He wasn't sure which was more terrifying.

And then there was Dom. Sweet, sassy Dom who looked like she'd witnessed someone kicking puppies. Staring at him like he could possibly do something to fix it.

Just as he inserted the battery back into his phone, it blinked at him.

_One new message._

A few seconds later, he grinned up at Dom. "They found them!"

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the delay (again!)- I just finished a stint as a summer camp counselor with very little access to internet. This part was super easy to write, though, because it's actually based loosely on a hiking trip I led (with some other RAs from my school), where one of the other RAs ended up with a broken ankle in two places that eventually needed surgery. Also…

Eden Hall Elite: Thanks! Luis will feature in later, potentially as a spring-break getaway thread. I'm so glad you like Kenny- he's one of my favorite Ducks so I had to include him, since most stories barely mention him. As for some 'horizontal tango'… well… keep reading!

Over and out!

~ Flyinghawk


	6. Part Six

Part Six

The sun was shining. The ocean, not even two miles away, brought seagulls and the smell of seaweed and sunblock on the warm breeze. Loud music with a fast, Latin beat pulsed around the block and trickled into the dormitory of the Miami School for the Culinary Arts. Housing one hundred of the nation's top culinary students, the dormitory had a distinct Spanish flair- stucco walls, classic architecture, low ferns, warm-toned tile.

It was after classes, and the majority of the culinary students were gearing up for a night out on the beach. The occupants of room 26 were no exception- they were primping and scarfing down steak fajitas. Oh, the perks of being trained in the art of deliciousness.

Luis Mendoza was just running his hand through his hair one last time when he walked into the common area, where his roommate Roz was watching the news on their flat screen. She had long since been ready to hit the beach- she was dressed in her favorite bikini and cover-up, and her dark curly hair was ridiculously poufy, as she had intended it to be. He grabbed his keys from the peg near the door but something he heard the newscaster say made him pause with the door half open.

"A group of college students from the Moloney Academy for the Athletically Inclined are safe tonight after being rescued from the Giant's Playground, a local spot for hiking. Freshmen Adam Banks, Kenneth Wu, Parker Harris, Cecelia Underwood, and Julie Gaffney, as well as junior Jared Whitehouse, were attempting to beat the storm down the mountain when disaster struck. Sasha O'Donoghue reports live from…"

Luis' mouth hung open.

"Sucks to be them, donnit?" Roz said offhandedly, sipping a Sprite. She picked up the remote.

"Don't change the channel!" Luis snapped. He slammed the door. "God damn you, Banksie, what am I going to do with you?"

His roommate surveyed him with renewed interest. "Luis, do you know them?"

He didn't answer her. He flipped open his phone. "Charlie Conway, why am I seeing your face on a news channel for being lost on a mountain?" He listened for a moment. "No, I have NOT inhaled too much sugar from the cupcakes I made today! We didn't even MAKE cupcakes today, we made a strawberry torte… Enough about cupcake school. What happened?"

He began pacing in the small kitchen area.

"Slow down, slow down… who broke what? No, I'm not your mother; do I need to be on the next plane up there? Pennsylvania's not that far away, man…"

He looked at the screen. Adam was helping the EMTs load a girl with brown hair who was giving an exaggerated thumbs up to the camera into the ambulance, while the newscaster (who could interview him any time she liked, Luis quickly decided, after seeing her flawless skin and curly brown hair) spoke to Averman.

Averman?! Luis squinted. Yep, mop of red hair, geek glasses. And next him was Goldberg, and then Dwayne. Luis saw Charlie skulking in the background, the unmistakable outline of a phone pressed up against his ear.

"You're talking to me on camera?!" Luis groaned.

Screen-Charlie looked in the direction of the camera and grinned.

"What's up, Mendoza?"

* * *

The waiting room in the hospital had never been so crowded. The nurses behind the reception desk eyed the crowd warily. The girl they'd seen on the news had been wheeled in not even ten minutes earlier, taking with her one of the taller boys and a blond girl. The rest of the group from the mountain had been taken to a separate room, where they were being checked for hypothermia. The rest, including the news anchor, had set up camp in said waiting room, where two of the group were currently fighting over the television station.

One of the nurses filing papers threw a look at the other taking a drink from his Nalgene. _It's gunna be a long night. _

"Seriously, Charlie, we live and breathe sports every other day. What's wrong with a little Cartoon Network?" Averman was whining.

"Shhh, this is good!" Charlie pulled the hood on his sweatshirt up and got as comfortable as he could in the stiff-backed hospital chairs. "It's about the Jamaican bobsled team!"

Dwayne gave him a skeptical look. "But Jamaica doesn't even have any snow!"

Charlie grinned. "Sweet, isn't it?"

Averman crossed his arms and huffed.

* * *

They were poked. They were prodded. They were instructed to shower to get their body temperatures up. One by one, they filed into the bathroom and came back out dressed in flannel pajamas. When Parker came out in hers, Kenny and Adam looked at each other and stifled smiles. Not only was she the last to shower, but she was given children's pajamas because she swam in the first set.

She pouted, and poked Kenny in the shoulder. "What's so funny?"

Kenny's eyes roved over her, taking in her outfit again: a pink and white flannel set of footie pajamas, complete with lace at the neck and the cuffs. Her short honey blonde hair was wet and her pout made her look like a petulant five year old.

"No offense, Parker," he started, taking her hand and scooting over on the bench they'd been instructed to wait on for the on-call doctor, "But you kinda look like a little kid."

Parker's eyes narrowed. "I would be annoyed," she said slowly, as if trying to remember what she was going to say in the first place, "But I'm too tired to be angry." She turned on the bench and put her feet up, nestling her back into Adam's side. "Wake me up when the doctor gets here," she said sleepily.

She hadn't had her eyes closed for even five minutes before the doctor walked in. He was tall, much taller than even Jared, and skinny, with reddish-blond hair and sparkly blue eyes.

Kenny's voice could barely contain the grin he was suppressing when he sang, "Oh, Parker, doc's here!"

Parker cracked an eye.

The doctor picked up a folder. "So, stranded on a mountain, huh?" He surveyed the motley crew in their flannel. "Not the first time I've heard that one." He checked the sheet. "Five hours up there in the rain?"

Adam nodded wearily.

"I'm Dr. Hartwell," the redheaded doctor said amicably. "You are…?"

"I'm Adam, this is Parker and that's Kenny. Jared and Julie are in with Lee, wherever she is." The center flicked his eyes down at Parker's tousled blonde hair and lifted his hand to stroke it absently.

Dr. Hartwell didn't miss the gesture that Adam meant as friendship, and from the small smirk gracing his otherwise boyish good looks he'd misinterpreted it as a relationship quirk.

Parker noticed. She sat up quickly and wiggled just slightly away from Adam, as if to deliberately nip any other assumptions in the bud.

They all sat in silence as the doctor took their temperatures and felt their glands, took blood pressure, and assessed their general well-being. Finally, when he was satisfied, he straightened up and sat down on the stool opposite them.

"Well, you guys seem to be no worse for wear, but a little dehydrated. We ARE going to keep you overnight for observation, give you some fluids, make sure you don't start up fevers." He snapped the folder shut. "If you guys will come with me, we'll get you guys settled into bed."

The doctor and two nurses showed them all to their rooms, taking up the end of a hallway- Jared and Adam in one room, Parker and Kenny in the center, and Lee and Julie in the very end room.

Once Parker had begrudgingly gotten underneath the covers, she looked at the nurse holding a pitcher of water. "Can our friends come in and visit for a couple minutes? Pleeeeease?" She gave the nurse a hopeful look.

The nurse refrained from scowling. "A few minutes. You need rest, and they need to go home. It's late."

Parker clapped happily. "Thank you! Thank you!"

A few moments later, Charlie was barreling through the door. "Kennaaaay! How's it goin', buddy? Hey short stuff!" He ruffled Parker's hair, plopping on her bed. He looked around. "How'd you guys end up sharing a room?"

Parker shrugged, pulling the blanket further around her. "Whatever. I'd rather share a room with Kenny than you."

"Ouch!" Charlie said, clutching his heart. "That hurt!"

Kenny smirked at the captain. "Truth hurts." He dodged a pillow thrown by Charlie. "Hey!" he said indignantly. "Hospital bed here! I'm fragile!"

Charlie picked up the remote to the television hanging across from Parker's bed. "Oooh, cable!"

Parker rolled her eyes. "Distracted by shiny things. How appropriate."

Charlie ignored her pointedly, and flipped the channel to the Jamaican bobsled team movie. Unfortunately for him, it was over. Frowning, he kept flipping until he found the channel for SpongeBob SquarePants. Settling back on his elbows, he grinned and said happily, "I love cartoons."

Rather than let herself be annoyed by SpongeBob's irritating laugh, she rearranged the pillows behind her and worked the side controls on the bed so it raised the head of the bed up a bit more, forcing her into a sitting position. She plumped up her extra pillow. "Captain Duck, lie back," she instructed.

"If we weren't in a hospital, I would think something kinky was going on," Kenny said from the next bed.

Parker snickered.

Charlie hadn't heard the comment, but peeled his eyes off of SpongeBob long enough to look back. His smile brightened when he saw the pillow. He scooted back eagerly and was soon snuggling next to her, occasionally laughing at the show. He barely noticed when Averman and Goldberg came in and piled onto Kenny's bed.

Averman sat there quietly on Kenny's bed while everyone became engrossed in the cartoons. After a while Goldberg complained that Averman's knees were drilling into his back and he crawled over onto Parker's bed. He shoved Charlie a little to the side and settled in happily.

The redhead watched in awe as Parker went from watching the television contentedly, curled up against Charlie and rubbing Goldberg's back absentmindedly to sound asleep. He elbowed Kenny and pointed.

Kenny followed his gaze and spluttered, but couldn't respond- a different nurse came in just then, and nearly burst a blood vessel when she saw the number of people piled on the beds. Her initial screech woke Parker up. The nurse ordered everyone out, complete with the shooing motions, herding them all the way to the entrance to the emergency ward until she was satisfied they wouldn't try to sneak back in. When she came back, she resumed her duties, taking Kenny and Parker's vital signs.

"You two should be asleep," she said pointedly, pointing to her wristwatch. She flipped the television off.

Parker glared at her. "I was," she mumbled, stifling a yawn.

As soon as she shut off the lights and left the room Kenny glanced over at Parker. She had curled up under the thin blanket and burrowed her face into the pillow.

He rolled over and pulled his blanket up and breathed deeply.

* * *

News coverage in Pennsylvania had to be slow. It seemed like, everywhere they went, some reminder of that disastrous hike jumped out at them from magazine stands or local newspaper boxes. Thankfully, by Halloween, things had died down enough so that Adam wasn't afraid that he would be ambushed outside his dormitory on his way to hockey practice.

It also meant that he wasn't able to figure a way out of attending the Halloween Dance.

Adam wasn't one for public appearances. That was more Charlie's gig. Charlie LIVED for the spotlight that being the center of attention came hand-in-hand with. Adam preferred to be an innocent, silent bystander.

That was before Charlie had decided their suite was going to have a group costume.

Adam stared at himself in the mirror over his dresser again. There was no way he was going to this dance. Especially dressed as Luigi. His wig itched, the mustache Charlie had proudly produced at lunch smelled like a cheap dollar store candy machine, and the white gloves were making his hands sweat. At least he looked good in green.

Across the room, the other guys that he and Charlie roomed with were high-fiving and talking about how epic their entrance was going to be. They were decent enough guys- Craig played soccer and Mike played basketball, and both had girlfriends that they stayed with more often than not. Both had been psyched when Charlie announced what he wanted to go to the dance as.

Craig, because he was shorter and more goofy, was a shoo-in for Yoshi. That left Mike, the tallest, to take on the role of Bowser. Both had enlisted their girlfriends' help and produced awesome costumes.

"Dude," Craig said as he tested the swing of Yoshi's tail, "This is awesome."

"Where's Charlie?" Mike asked, securing the half-shell backpack for his Bowser costume.

Adam shrugged. He jammed his hat on his head and sat at his desk.

"Don't look so happy, Banksie," Charlie said when he walked through the door. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts?" He twirled his Mario mustache deviously.

"Believe it or not, I have midterms to study for," Adam grumbled.

"No way," Charlie said, pulling the center to his feet and throwing an arm around his shoulders. "No Mother Duck going to bed at eight tonight!" He reached into his overalls and pulled out a flask. "Refreshment?"

"Charlie, seriously…" Adam had the beginnings of a massive headache. "Do you remember the no-alcohol policy? Our contracts?"

"You're going to need some liquid courage to hang with the ladies tonight," Charlie grinned at him from underneath that ridiculous mustache.

"Ladies?" Adam ground out. "Who are you talking about?"

"C'mon, Banksie," Charlie groaned. "You're kidding me, right?" When the blond couldn't answer, he said slowly, "You know, our girls. Julie, Connie, Parker, Lee, Mara… remember them? Plus, all the hotties that are going to be allll over us when we hit this dance!"

From behind them, Mike and Craig nodded sagely.

"Anyway," Charlie said, pulling out his iPhone, "Say 'cheese'!"

* * *

The girls in question were also putting their finishing touches on their costumes. With Lee on crutches, the maintenance staff had swapped out her standard-issue loft bed with a futon she could get on and off with ease, so space had been cramped lately. Add in the wheelchair the health center staff and the athletic trainers were required to provide, and it was _really _cramped in suite 304.

Thankfully, Lee's spirits hadn't been diminished by her injury. Sure, she wound up having to have surgery on her ankle and have two metal pieces attached, but she rolled or swung around campus cheerfully enough, and even convinced her coach to allow to stay on the track team as a manager for the fall season.

That night, her wheelchair served as a pivotal part of her costume.

She casually asked Parker and Dom to swing by the recycling center on their way back from practices to nab some cardboard. They didn't think anything of it, and with their schedules so hectic and busy, they hadn't seen her do anything with it, so they'd promptly forgotten.

While Julie, Parker, and Connie were getting their costumes on, Lee had wheeled down the hall to Connie and Mara's room. When she and Mara returned, Connie had immediately burst into giggles.

Together, they had transformed Lee's wheelchair into a bulldozer, and she was wearing red suspenders over a white t-shirt, and a yellow hard hat. Mara was dressed similarly, though her t-shirt was a bit more low-cut and her hard hat propped up so her big blue eyes glittered under her mascaraed eyelashes. She held a kid's play shovel one hand.

"You guys look awesome!" Connie exclaimed. Her long brown hair was stuffed up underneath a strawberry red wig, pulled into a ponytail, and secured with a red bow on top.

"Thanks!" Mara replied brightly, pushing Lee into the room.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you guys actually went through with it!" Lee cried happily. She looked at Mara from underneath her hard hat. "I gave them the idea of going like the PowerPuff Girls ages ago!"

"Yeah, but do you know how long it took us to find these boots?" Parker grunted as she zipped up her snug black platform boots. Her tight green dress hugged her slight build, and her dark Buttercup wig hid her short blonde hair. She scowled. "I look like a doofus."

Beside her, Julie's blonde hair was brushed into two pigtails, and her blue Bubbles dress made her c-cups look amazing. "I'm ignoring you."

Connie shook her head at her friends. "We look hot."

They struck a pose. "Sugar," Julie said with a coy smile, bringing her hands up in a mock pistol.

"Spice!" Parker chimed in, her back against Julie's.

"And everything nice!" Connie flashed a huge grin, kneeling the best she could in her short pink dress and black boots, her own finger pistol straight ahead.

Mara whipped out her iPhone, which was appropriately cased with a yellow caution sign on the back, and snapped a picture. "Fantastic!" A few moments later, she snickered. "Instagrammed and tagged on Facebook."

"Me next, me next!" Lee squirmed around in her chair. She gave a thumbs-up and gave the cheesiest grin Parker had ever seen.

"Come on, girls," Connie said, tucking her ID holder into the pocket of her sparkly pink dress. "Places to be, people to wow."

* * *

"This DJ isn't bad!" Jared shouted over the pulsing music. He had caught up to the girls outside the McEnroe Student Center, where Hamm Café had been rearranged to serve as the dance space, and offered to take over pushing Lee's bulldozer chair. He had somehow found the parts to a Green Giant costume and was, in Lee's opinion, rocking the spinach leaf skirt, tights, and green body paint.

Standing in line had taken the greater part of an hour. Connie, Julie, and Parker had been stopped several times with compliments, requests for pictures, as well as a couple of catcalls. Those Connie answered with a very un-PowerPuff Girl hand gesture. Velvet Hammer indeed.

"He shouldn't be!" Dominique sang as she danced by with some of her swim team friends, dressed as Nicki Minaj. "It's Russ!"

Connie's eyes widened. "NO WAY." Sure enough, up on stage and wearing an absurdly large clock face around his neck was Russ. Connie had forgotten that he had bid on a dj spot at the school's radio station, WMAI, and had a radio show one hour every Tuesday.

Parker peered up at Russ. "What the hell is he supposed to be?"

"That would be Flava-Flav," Charlie answered. He held his arms out, snapping his Mario overalls and grinning. "Whaddya think?" Behind him, his roommates were checking in with dance security.

"Cute." Julie smirked. "Where are the others?"

"We saw Averman in line," Adam came up behind Charlie. His mustache was already crooked. "He's a mime."

"Banks, c'mere," Lee motioned. He bent down and she unceremoniously ripped it off his face.

He yelped, his gloved hand flying to his face. "Seriously?"

"I'm fixing it!" She smoothed it back over his mouth. "See? Better." She flexed. "All in a day's work."

Julie snorted. She turned back to Charlie. "Anyone else?"

Charlie thought about it. "Averman as a mime, I saw that girl, Andrea, running around in a Wonder Woman cape, um… Guy's already here cos of Russ, and yes, Connie, he's dressed as Mojo Jojo, haven't seen Portman and Fulton since practice this morning… oh! You'll never guess." He snickered. "Russ, Ken, and Averman convinced Dwayne to dress as a gangster!"

Parker stared at him. "Wait… what?"

Charlie's snickering went into full-on giggling. Beside him, Adam looked like a disapproving elderly aunt. "He's dressed in a bunch of Russ' clothes, and they found him some cheap dollar-sign necklaces."

"I've got to see this to believe it!" Lee declared from her bulldozer. She looked up at her partner-in-crime. "Seriously. Mara. We're finding him. Anyone else want to go?"

"Me!" Parker volunteered. Together, they swung into the dancing mob.

"Russ dubbed him D-Money," a voice came from behind them.

Adam stared at Ken, who had on a white button-up shirt, gray pants with suspenders, glasses, with several pens lining his front pocket and a paper under his arm. "Who are you supposed to be?"

Ken smirked, and started unbuttoning his shirt.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Julie held up her hands. She glared good-naturedly at her friend. "What are you, a closet exhibitionist?"

Ken rolled his eyes. Underneath his dress shirt was a Superman shirt. "Clark Kent, at your service."

Connie patted his chest. "Dork." She adjusted her bow. "I've got some monkey-lovin' to get." With a wink and a flourish, she had disappeared.

When Averman came in and pantomimed that he thought they were being lame by standing around rather than dancing, the group split up. Charlie and Averman went in search of the Bash Brothers and what horrific costumes they had come up with this year. Julie was delighted to see Jared lumber off with the intent of finding a certain wheelchair-bound track star and her crew. She threw an arm around Adam, who still looked like he was still miserable, and said, "Come on, Banksie, we're going dancing."

She ignored his protests as she negotiated the crowd on 3-inch platforms with a six foot plus hockey player in tow. They found a clearing near the front of the crowd, closer to the stage, and she started moving to the admittedly awesome music Russ was playing.

After a few minutes, she stopped and put her hands on her hips, glaring at her former childhood boyfriend. "What is wrong with you, Banks? I've been dancing around you like some demented May Pole and you haven't moved a muscle!"

Adam nodded, and then, after a few seconds' pause, started shifting his weight back and forth from side to side in what Julie assumed was to the beat of the music. He lifted his arms and started snapping his fingers. Well, as best he could with his Luigi gloves.

Julie sighed, and kept dancing. "Good enough."

* * *

It hadn't taken long for the goofy RA to find Lee, Parker mused happily as she ladled herself some punch from the bowl the decorating committee had provided. The two were sitting at a table, removed from the melee of dancing students, chattering away like a pair of monkeys. He adored her, it was obvious. Parker was about to pull out her phone to snap a creeper photo when she heard whispering behind her.

"Dude, just dump it in before they see you!"

"Shut up, dude, the cap's stuck!"

Parker turned around and her giddy smile turned into a frown of exasperation. "What the hell are you doing?"

Fulton Reed broke out into a grin, made all the more creepy due to the fact that his costume was supposed to be Chucky. Next to him, holding a bottle of vodka, was Dean Portman. He was dressed like Jason, complete with hockey mask and giant blade.

"Spiking the punch," Portman replied, dumping half the bottle in the bowl. "Obviously."

Fulton dunked a cup in and took a sip. "Maybe a little more."

Portman poured the rest in. "How's that?" He served himself a cup. He sighed happily. "Just like Grandma used to make."

Parker raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"

The enforcer drained his cup in time to see the dance security people looking in their direction. With a quick 'see ya,' he and Fulton were gone.

She turned her back to the punch bowl and got some more punch, savoring the mostly-vodka concoction slowly while she took in the dance scene unfolding around her. There were some guys dressed like otherworldly aliens clustered around the chips and queso that started making Trekkie noises in her general direction, so she abandoned her cup and went to find some of her friends.

Her search was cut short when she walked into Averman. His normally unruly hair was stuffed under a black beret, and Parker recognized Connie's black and gray striped shirt under his red suspenders.

He pantomimed a wave, then pointed beside him to Kenny.

"Hey, Clark Kent," she said with a smile and a little hip shake. "What's shakin'?"

Kenny laughed. "You're funny, PowerPuff Girl. What's your name?" He stuck out his hand. "I'm Kenny Wu. This is Lester Averman. We play hockey."

Cold dread washed over Parker as she stared at her friend's hand. Almost two months of being friends, and he didn't recognize her in a dress and with her dark wig on. She didn't know whether to laugh or be upset.

The look on Averman's face mirrored hers. He started finger-spelling frantically.

"Aves, I didn't know you knew sign language!" Kenny looked impressed. "I never learned… what are you saying?"

Parker stared at him.

"So," Kenny turned back to her. "Can I get your name?"

Averman's signing got faster.

Parker nodded, a small grin forming on her red lips. She lowered her eyelashes. "Just call me Buttercup." She held out her hand. "Wanna dance?"

Averman's jaw dropped.

Soon Parker was in front of Kenny, pressing her back up against his chest and dancing around as best as she could. She felt a little weird, because, well… it was Kenny… but there was something that just felt right about being that close to him, in his arms, acting just a teeny tiny little bit slutty.

And from the way he was shaking his hips against hers and pressing his mouth to her neck, it was going over pretty well with him, too.

_Well, shit._

* * *

"Thanks for wheeling me home, Jared," Lee said when they got to her door. He had offered to walk her home and she had accepted, not wanting to tear her friends away from dancing before they were ready.

"No problem. Hey," he said, coming around to kneel on the side of her bulldozer. "How are you holding up? Like, for real?"

Lee smiled. "I'm okay," she said, waving him off. "Seriously. Would I rather be running my sprints? Yeah. Probably. But that hike made it totally worth it."

Jared grinned at her.

"Besides," Lee continued, taking one of his large hands in both of hers, "I got to hang out with you, didn't I?"

His grin got wider.

"Would you want to go out with me?" Lee asked suddenly. When he didn't answer right away, she added, "You know… or not."

Jared leaned over, brushing her bangs out of the way, and captured her lips in a kiss.

When he pulled away, she managed, "I'll take that as a yes?"

* * *

Charlie walked back towards the dormitories after the dance was finished with Adam, Averman, and Dwayne, his mustache long gone and his gloves stuffed into his overall pockets.

"He did what?" the captain was asking incredulously.

"I'm telling you," Averman said exasperatedly, his vow of silence for the evening long since abandoned,. "Ken was totally grinding up on Parker, but he legitimately didn't know that it was her!"

"How could he not have known it was her?" Dwayne asked. "I mean, it was dark in there, and sure, she was wearin' a wig and all, but…"

"I still think you could've said something, _Averman,_" Adam snarled.

They all stopped to stare at their friend.

"What if this ruins their friendship?" Adam continued, throwing up his hands and reminding Averman of Goldberg's grandmother that visited from Portugal in the fifth grade. "What if they don't hang out anymore? What if our group gets weird?"

"I just thought it would be funny," Averman mumbled. "I didn't think it would go that far, I thought he would eventually recognize her and we'd all laugh about it."

"Well, joke's on you, then," the center snapped.

Charlie held up his hands. "Woah. Banks. We don't know what's going to happen, or if anything _will _happen. Ease up."

"No, I will NOT ease up, Charlie," Adam bit out. "I think Ken really likes her. You didn't see them together up on the mountain. You didn't pay attention to them the day we got released. I've never seen him act like this around anyone."

Charlie frowned. A car sped by them, narrowly missing them on the sidewalk. "Maybe we should work on damage control in the morning. Text me if you catch wind of anything." He led Adam towards Brady Dormitory.

* * *

"I had a great time tonight," Ken said softly in front of his door. His mystery dance partner had insisted that she drop him off instead of the other way around, which, as a gentleman who had been raised by Julie and Connie, was what he would have preferred. Tonight hadn't been a normal one for him, though- he rarely threw all caution to the wind and just went with what was happening without any thought.

He kind of liked it.

His mystery dancer stared up at him, and smiled coyly. She really was quite pretty, with short black hair and green eyes. She was about Parker's height, but that's where the similarities stopped. Parker was light and fun and teasing, the perfect wholesome girl combination of quirky and sporty that ordinarily drove him nuts to the point where he wondered how he had kept the fact that he had a crush on her a secret for so long.

This girl, though, she was secretive and sexy and artfully done makeup, hips that swiveled teasingly and a pair of breasts that had all but exploded out of the top of her dress. And damn if it didn't make him want her.

"Me, too," she said finally, drumming her fingertips on the doorframe.

Kenny leaned down and kissed her, slow at first and then not slow at all. He thread his hands in her hair, and she moved closer to him, pushing him up against the door. He started when he felt the tip of her tongue seeking the inside of his mouth, but relaxed and let her in, savoring the lingering taste of fruit punch on her lips.

She finally pulled away. "I'll be seeing you, Superman." With a wink, she walked away, leaving Ken alone with his jumbled thoughts.

* * *

A/N: I know, it's been ages, and it's a little jumbled and cliché in parts, but… let me know what you think. I'm sure there are people out there who have read this? Maybe? Over and out! ~Flyinghawk


	7. Part Seven

Part Seven

A cold, crisp Saturday not long after Halloween, the Moloney Girl's soccer team had their first home game. Since they were neighbors with the goalie, a sassy Irish girl named Geraldine, Parker, Lee, and Julie had promised to attend the home opener.

Lee was seriously regretting this promise as she shivered into a cup of hot chocolate from the Dunkin Donuts down the road from the field. The only thing that made it better was the giant basketball player whose arms were wrapped around her.

She had gotten out of her chair and off her crutches just after the dance, and she was bursting with pent-up energy. She wished for a second that she played soccer, so she could go run around on the field.

_Then again,_ she thought as one of the Moloney players got taken out by one of the Penn State players, _That looked like it hurt._

Dwayne pulled his scarf tighter around his neck. "I bet that smarts," he commented. Next to him, Parker was bouncing up and down to keep warm, and Julie was sipping an extra-large french vanilla coffee with thick blue mittens on.

"Who's winning, anyway?" Kenny asked, offering Parker one of the hot chocolates he was carrying. He didn't notice her hesitate before accepting it gratefully.

In the last week or so she had tried to spend less time around him while she sorted through her guilt over what had transpired Halloween night. Averman had cornered her in the dining hall one morning, and they had a long heart-to-heart over pancakes and coffee. He told her how happy Ken had been the morning after the dance and how he had confided to his roommates that he had been thinking about that girl, and how dismayed he had been when he couldn't find the mystery dancer any time they went to the dining hall.

Somehow, he hadn't seen any of the pictures that Mara had taken before they went to the dance. She had been sure they were on Facebook, but she knew Kenny rarely checked it, unless he was procrastinating for something.

Averman had an inkling that Parker liked Kenny, but wanted her to admit it on her own terms and tell him that it was her that had been kissing him that night. If that meant prodding her in that direction, that was fine by him. He thought that they would make a great couple, but he wondered what Kenny would say when he put two and two together. He had already made a comment about how he hadn't seen Parker at the dance at all, even though he knew she went.

"It looks like the Strikers are winning, 2-1," Parker said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

Kenny looked at her interestedly. "The Strikers, huh?" he said, thinking about it. "Not bad. What did the softball team go with, anyway?"

Parker grimaced as she burnt the tip of her tongue. "Um, we wound up going with Marauders… shit, this sucks!"

Kenny's face fell. He ran his spare hand through his hair, ruffling the back up. "Sorry about that."

Parker frowned. "No. Not the hot chocolate. I burnt my tongue." She stuck out her tongue. "Thee?"

He laughed. "Sucks to be you."

Parker scowled at him, then turned her attention to the field. One of the Moloney girls was on a breakaway towards the Penn State goal. She veered to the left, and kicked, scoring a third goal for the Strikers.

The crowd cheered as a horn blasted and the team exchanged high-fives before getting back in position.

"We're going for a walk," Jared said as he and Lee walked by. "Possibly back up to Ashe." They left, walking briskly.

"Hmmm," Julie said, a twinkle in her eye. "Wonder what they're getting up to."

Parker snickered.

Dwayne turned to them. "Guys," he started, adjusting his cowboy hat, "I'm gunna go grab a program. Y'all want one?"

Parker shook her head. "Nah, I'm good." She grinned at the Texan. "I'll sneak a peek at yours," she winked.

Dwayne flushed pink.

"Don't tease the Cowboy," Julie said, not taking her eyes off the game. "He's easily embarrassed."

As soon as Dwayne was out of earshot, Kenny turned to Parker again. "So, where've you been this week?"

She looked at him, her heart thumping a little quicker. _He noticed._

"You missed Mario Night," he continued, giving her a mock glare. "Fulton and Portman crushed me and Russ, and Aves had to do commentating."

She smiled weakly. The thought of Averman as announcer actually was pretty funny. "Lots of homework, I guess. I had a paper in history and a lab due in marine bio."

"And I know how you procrastinate."

"Not as bad as you!"

"Pssh," Kenny scoffed. "A little solitaire, an hour on Facebook, check your email, write a sentence or two, check Facebook again…"

Parker had no witty reply to that. After all, it was pretty true. The only thing that could make her get down to business was a kick-ass iTunes playlist and some headphones.

"You remember we have that group project for anthro coming up, right? I was talking to Oppenheim and he said we're in a group with your softball friend and Averman," Kenny said.

Parker groaned.

"Why such a long face?" Averman said, his ginger curls stuffed into a blue hat with a pompom on top. His glasses were foggy. "What, you afraid that we're going to have to graph our findings by chiseling tally marks on a rock?" He ruffled Parker's hair.

They laughed.

* * *

Dwayne leafed through the program, sidestepping little clusters of shivering students and families. He knew that the girls knew the goalie, and he thought he had ecology with one of the two playing defense.

He narrowly missed a pair of older men wrapped in Moloney scarves, and side-stepped into a girl walking the other way.

They landed on the cold ground in a heap, Dwayne's hat and program and her earmuffs going flying.

"Sorry!" the girl cried. She got up from where she had fallen on his shoulder.

"I'm sure it was my fault, ma'am," Dwayne said earnestly, dusting off his hat and plonking it down over his ears again. "Aww, you ripped your jeans!" He looked up at her. "I am so, so sorry!"

The girl looked at him, then looked down. Her jeans were indeed ripped in the knee. Her pink Converse sneakers were streaked with dirt and dew.

"I hate to break it to you, Texas," she said with a smile, "But you didn't do that. The nice people at Abercrombie did."

Dwayne blinked. "Oh," he said, his ears flushing pink. He'd heard of Abercrombie. You didn't go to boarding school without encountering some mention of what most people in his neighborhood deemed high-end fashion.

The girl smiled, flashing a set of colorful braces. "You're cute. Where are you from?"

"Austin, Texas," Dwayne mumbled.

"Long way from home, huh?" she mused. She stuck out her hand. "Kim Springer. Philly, born and raised."

"Dwayne Robertson," he replied.

"Want to watch the rest of the game with me, Dwayne?" she asked, her dark brown bangs falling in her eyes.

The boy smiled. "I'd love to."

* * *

"Look at that!" Parker interrupted Averman and Kenny's heated argument on who was a better Bond to point down the field line to where Dwayne was huddled with a short dark-haired girl.

"Awww," Averman chuckled, "Robertson's roped himself a filly!"

Julie looked at her teammate. "Who uses the word 'filly' anymore?" she asked snidely.

Averman held up his hands. "Dwayne!"

Julie nodded. "Fair enough." She peered at them. "I think that girl lives with Geraldine."

"Your neighbor?" Kenny asked. "Is she nice?"

"Is she hot?" Averman interrupted.

The girls stared at him.

"What?" he asked defensively. "I'm a guy. I don't have a girlfriend. I think about these things!"

Julie chose to ignore him. "She is nice," she said. "I think her name's Kim."

"I don't know if I've met this one," Parker said. "He's got her laughing, that's a good sign!"

"A very good sign," Averman agreed. "Unless she's laughing at him."

The girls and Kenny stared at him.

"Tough crowd," Averman whispered to himself.

* * *

"Want to come over later and pretend to read the chapters for anthro while we actually watch the Indiana Jones marathon on USA?" Kenny asked Parker as the crowd dispersed after the Strikers' win.

"We'll see," Parker said lamely. At his confused look, she said, "I've got a ton of other work to do this weekend, plus weight training with Suze."

"Okay," Kenny said lightly. "No pressure."

"Cool. Maybe I'll see you at dinner," Parker said. She checked her watch. "I've gotta go." She sped off before he could answer.

"That was weird," Kenny said quietly to Averman.

"Is something going on between you two?" Julie asked suddenly. Her blue eyes narrowed. "You guys haven't been hanging out nearly as much lately." She noticed Averman's wide eyes. "What's with you, Curly?"

He looked properly affronted. "I can't help it if my hair is more interesting than yours, Cat Lady," he said testily.

"Never mind that," Julie said. She elbowed Ken. "What gives, Wu?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. "I didn't even see her at the dance. Suddenly practices and papers and homework are getting in the way of regular hang-out time." He paused. "Like Mario Night!" His eyes were wide. "She's NEVER missed Mario Night!"

Julie pursed her lips. She had no idea what was going on with her roommate, but she knew that Averman did. And the redhead wasn't sharing details. She made a mental note to corner her friend later, when no one else was around. For now, though… she gave the Asian boy a reassuring smile. "I'm sure some of this stuff just came up, and it'll pass."

"I hope so," Kenny grumbled. "This sucks."

* * *

Dinner that night was a stifled affair.

Adam was irritated at Charlie for not doing his laundry for so long that he had found a pair of his boxer shorts in his backpack.

Charlie was wondering how Fulton and Portman got away with half the shit they did.

Julie was wracking her brain and trying to figure out why things were weird between Kenny and Parker.

Connie and Guy were having a moment- Guy had stupidly asked why Connie wore the cherry ChapStick instead of the grape that she knew he liked, and Connie was stabbing noodles like they were the enemy.

Ken was mopey- Parker hadn't come by, and hadn't answered his text about dinner.

Mara and Lee were arguing with Goldberg about pizza toppings.

Jared was mad at Russ and Dom for resorting to having 'alone time' in the bathroom, and being so loud that the girls who lived next to the bathrooms complained so he had to document them.

Russ and Dom were mad at the girls for making Jared interrupt them.

Averman had spilled coffee down his front. He was mad at the cup.

Charlie lifted his head and looked around. "Where's the Cowboy?"

"With that girl he met today at the soccer game," Averman said moodily, mopping at his sweatshirt with water from Goldberg's glass. Goldberg stopped and glared at him.

"What girl?" Charlie perked up.

"Our neighbor's roommate," Julie explained.

"Name? Sport? Is she hot?" Charlie was suddenly all ears. If only his professors could get this level of attentiveness out of him during class time.

Julie glared at him. "Down, Chuck. Kim Springer. Golf. I guess."

Charlie nodded and waited for her to continue. "And?"

Julie leveled him with a stare. "And what, precisely?"

The table got quiet.

Adam spoke up. "So help me God, Charlie, if you are waiting for her rating I will disown you and sic Connie on you at practice on Monday."

"Rating?" Connie asked, her voice dangerously level.

Charlie looked back and forth between his glowering roommate and his oldest friend, who was glaring daggers at him. He put on what he hoped was a charismatic smile. "I mean… it gives me a framework, you know?"

"Explain yourself, Spazway," Connie said. "NOW."

"Well, a 1 is ridiculously ugly. A 5 is like, average, kinda plain, the best is a 10, but those only exist in fairy tales or when you're drunk… not that I've been that drunk, Cons, honest… but to give you an idea, Linda was a 7ish." Charlie babbled.

Connie propped her head on her hands. "Oh?" she feigned interest. "How would you rate me or Jules?"

"Thin ice, Conway," Jared warned.

"Or Lee, Dom, Parker, or Mara?" Julie piped up, her expression mirroring Connie's.

Charlie looked around at the varying levels of angry women, and the mostly sympathetic looks from the guys. "Um… do I have to answer?"

"If you value your life, you will," Julie said through clenched teeth.

He thought about it for a moment, then took one of Connie's hands and one of Julie's hands. "Ladies," he said gravely, "I would by lying out my ass if I didn't say that I have the _extremely _good fortune to be in the presence of Moloney's _only _perfect 10s." To punctuate his sad-ass attempt to apologize, he flashed a questioning smile.

"Nice save, Conway," Averman breathed.

Adam stared incredulously as the girls settled back down in their seats, apparently satisfied. "Seriously?!"

* * *

"You seem quiet today," Suze said during bicep curls. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Try a dollar," Parker grunted, bangs falling out of her headband. She pushed against the bar. "Inflation, you know?"

"Seriously, though," Suze laughed. "What's going on?"

"Ugh," Parker sighed. "So, you know how Julie, Connie, and I were the PowerPuff Girls for Halloween?"

"Best costume ever," Suze nodded. "I saw a picture on Facebook."

"Well," Parker continued, "I ran into Kenny and Averman, and Kenny didn't recognize me, cos I was in my Buttercup wig and wearing, y'know, a metric shitton of makeup. Averman was being a buttmunch and refusing to talk because he was a mime, so he starts signing to me-"

"Wait," Suze said slowly, "Signing? As in sign language?"

"Yeah. He starts signing to have a little fun and pretend like I don't know him, thinking we'd run into Connie and Julie later…"

"Oh shit. This can't end well."

"So I'm acting all coy and stupid girly, and we start dancing, and then we're grinding and I feel his mouth on my neck and you know how much I like him anyway, and then he tries to walk me back to my room, but obviously that can't happen-"

"-Because then he'd figure out it was you and that would be weird," Suze finished.

Parker nodded. "Exactly. So I walk him to _his _room, and then all of a sudden we're kissing and I want him so much, but if he knew it was me he would be so grossed out." She sat up. "So I winked and I left. We haven't really hung out since then."

"Damn." Suze shook her head. "That's a whole lot of drama, mama. How do you know he'd be grossed out?"

Parker gaped at her. "Um, cos we're like, best friends!" She and Suze switched places. "He was going to drive home with me for Thanksgiving cos San Francisco is too far away." She lifted the weights. "Now I dunno what's going to happen."

"Well, I think you should talk to him," Suze said gently. "I think he likes you, but that's just me. Don't ignore him, he'll totally think he did something wrong."

"Ohhh, he's already down that road," Parker grumbled. "He was all nice today at the soccer game and brought me hot chocolate, and then after he asked if I wanted to not do homework and watch the Indiana Jones marathon, and I blew him off."

Suze looked at her pityingly. "Eeesh."

Later, when they were heading back to their rooms, Suze paused on the sidewalk. "Good luck," she said, offering her fist. "Text me if you need some hide out time."

Parker bumped her teammate's fist gratefully. "Thanks," she said.

Suze hadn't gotten ten feet away when she received a text.

_Wallowy dinner of pizza and milkshakes? –P_

She laughed, and turned around. "You're on."

* * *

Kenny huffed, and slammed his economics book shut. "Whoever thought that being an accountant's son would come in handy was an asshole."

Averman tsked from his side of the room. "Such language!" he said in a high-pitched voice. "Why, in my day, sonny…" He dodged the aforementioned book, which knocked into his desk organizer and sent pens flying. "Ooooh," he said, "Low blow."

Kenny glared at him.

Averman gestured to the contents of his desktop. "No, seriously. If it had been higher, it would've hit my lamp."

Kenny sighed, and opened his anthropology book. He started scribbling notes irritably.

"I thought we were going to wait for Parker for that assignment," Averman said slowly, watching his roommate.

Kenny looked up, expression murderous. "Do you see her here?" he snapped, gesturing to the empty room. "No? Has she texted either of us? No? Okay then."

Averman surveyed his roommate over his glasses. He may have jokes that had poor timing, but Averman possessed an innate knack for reading situations and emotions. He would bet his favorite Star Wars shirt that Kenny was upset that Parker had suddenly disappeared from their life.

"You okay, dude?" he asked hesitantly. He braced himself for another book launch.

"I'm fine," Kenny said shortly. He turned away from Averman, and stared at his book. He sat up straighter, and turned around. "What the fuck happened?"

"What the fuck happened where?" Averman asked. In his experience, it was better for him to let Kenny open up on his own rather than prod him.

"Parker!" His roommate all but howled. "I don't know what I did, or what happened, but now it's like we're not even friends anymore! She never comes to dinner with us, she barely talked to me at the soccer game, even when I remembered that she liked mint hot chocolate, and she missed Mario Night!"

Averman blinked. "When did this start?"

"I dunno!" Kenny threw up his hands. "We were fine, we had a system! We survived that fucking hike with Jared. She showed me how to iron and I helped her back up her computer a couple weekends ago, I thought I'd see her at the Halloween Dance, because she and Connie and Julie were constantly yammering about…" He paused. His eyes widened, and his face drained.

"Yammering about…" Averman coaxed, waving his hands.

"Group… costumes…" Kenny said, horrified. He threw an accusing finger at his roommate. "YOU KNEW!"

Averman recoiled. He wondered how much room was under his desk in case he needed to hide.

"YOU DID!" Kenny yelled again. He knocked his chair over as he stood up. "You knew that it was her, and that's why you were signing! How come you didn't tell me?" He sank down on the floor. "Oh God."

"Oh God what?" Averman asked, tentatively sitting back up on his chair.

Kenny was sitting with his head in his hands. "After… when she walked me back here… we were kissing. Oh God. No wonder she's been avoiding me…"

"Dude!" Averman crowed with glee. "You kissed PARKER!" He cackled. "Wait til Julie finds out!"

"Oh God…" Kenny repeated.

"So," Averman said conversationally. "You and Parker. Cute." He clapped his hands. "Wait til Charlie finds out!"

Kenny groaned. "What do I do, Aves?"

Averman looked at his roommate and immediately dropped the smile that was creasing his face. "I'd talk to her," he said seriously. When Kenny started to protest, he held up his hands firmly. "I know it sounds like its going to suck, but honestly, we know how much you like her, and how much you like hanging out with her. We all like hanging out with her. She's pretty cool. But she probably has some feelings of her own that she's sorting through, you know? And I think for you guys to sit down and talk would help that."

Kenny was silent for a couple of long minutes. "You all know?" he asked weakly. "It's that bad?"

Averman smiled sadly. "I'm pretty sure that even Oppenheim knows."

"That's pretty fucking bad, dude."

* * *

Dwayne pulled away from Kim to come up for air. The two had found Ashe's laundry room empty and promptly made efficient use of the worn couch. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been kissed like that.

Actually, he could.

Summer, junior year of high school, spent back in Texas. The beautiful redheaded, freckle-faced girl on the farm next door, Rose, had taken him for a tumble in the farm's hayloft a couple of times before deciding that he was too docile for her wild ways. He had been so embarrassed that she dumped him that none of the Ducks knew she existed.

"Are you sure we should be doin' this?" Dwayne sputtered, sitting up and looking at the dark-haired beauty in his lap.

"Why not?" Kim smiled sweetly.

"I dunno," Dwayne said lamely. "We don't really know each other, and-"

"I thought we did this," Kim said, her gray eyes twinkling. She pointed at herself. "Kim Springer. Philly. Golf…" She racked her brain for other facts that he might want to know. "Divorced parents. Mother in Greece, last I heard. Workaholic doctor father. Lawyer older brother. Old grumpy cat named Rufus. Third floor apartment." She paused, and, judging by the interested look on the Texan's face, he wanted her to continue. So she did. "Um…I love the color yellow, I only own these pink sneakers because my brother got them for me- I hate pink. I'm a physical therapy major. I like ACDC and Aerosmith. I love pizza but hate tomatoes…" She smiled. "Your turn."

"Dwayne," he said. "Austin, Texas. Mom and Pop run the farm. My sister works the rodeo circuit. Couple hundred head of cattle, thirty-six horses, couple a dogs, buncha barn cats. I like the color green. I like mashed potatoes and gravy. I'm studyin' agriculture and business management." He looked at her seriously. "I'm kind of borin', to tell the truth."

Kim traced the pattern on his blue flannel shirt. "How did you get into hockey?"

"Mostly cos Mom and Pop wanted me to do somethin' fun while Carlie was off ridin'," Dwayne said. "I never dreamed I'd do all this and get here with hockey."

"Do all what?" Kim was puzzled.

"Well," Dwayne said, "First I was with a kid's team in Texas. Then I got recruited to join this team from Minnesota goin' to the Junior Goodwill Games. I spent a month in LA trainin' with the team before we started playin' in the big ole tournament, and the year after, we were all offered scholarships to go to this big private school in Minnesota."

"The Ducks?" Kim asked, her eyebrows raised.

"All of 'em came here when we were accepted 'cept Luis, who went to cookin' school," he said.

Truth was, he missed Luis. The Spanish boy's smooth way of talking, his carefree attitude, and his to die for brownies were things he brought to round out the Ducks. They all missed him, in little ways. The girls missed him telling them what looked best on them, and being able to go to him with relationship advice. The shyer boys missed hearing about his numerous conquests and his pep talks. Adam missed his speed on the ice, the freak. Charlie missed him for his willingness to wield a paintball gun with ease. Of course.

Without him, they were still a Flying V…

…But without all the parts, the Ducks were open to manipulation. Not the bad kind, but the kind where the current shape could be molded into something new and different.

Now Kim. She was different. She didn't seem to mind that he wore a cowboy hat, or said 'ma'am' a lot, like most of the girls at Eden Hall.

"Well, cowboy Dwayne," the aforementioned girl said, "Want to go rustle up some dessert? I know a diner downtown that has some pretty awesome pie."

He slipped his hand into hers. "Lead the way, m'lady."

* * *

Oppenheim was grating on his nerves.

Averman was generally a pretty easy-going individual. He was patient when customers sneered at his bow tie and red curls that summer he worked at the movie theater. He listened to his sister Sarah when she was telling him about kindergarten, even if he was hung over and bleary-eyed. He played chess in the evenings on Sunday with old Mrs. Swan, for God's sake, and she could stare at that board for hours.

Oppenheim and his stupid projects, on the other hand, could be shoved somewhere that sun refused to shine on most occasions.

The rest of the class started moving around, which jolted Averman out of his seething mind-funk. He blinked at Kenny. "Dude, what's going on? Wait, is he letting class out early?" he breathed in anticipation.

Kenny stared at him. "Uh, no. We're working on our project."

"What project?"

"Seriously?" Suze said, sliding into the seat next to him, draping her dark denim jacket across the back of her chair. She tapped her pencil against the desk. Her dark brown hair was in a braid, and Averman was shocked to see her in something other than athletic clothes. Going to a school for athletes guaranteed that half the population wore yoga pants at one point or another, which was always welcome in his book, but there was something oddly special about glimpsing his friends in what the rest of society would deem 'real clothes.' The coral jersey dress she wore hugged her ample curves in all the right ways, and her makeup was subtle and flawless.

Suze was hot.

Averman turned to Kenny to diffuse the sudden, crushing awkwardness he was feeling at the moment, but his comment fell short. Of course! He did a mental head-slap. He remembered signing up for topics for this project a couple of weeks ago. He and Kenny had suggested that Parker and Suze work with them. Duh.

Parker had sat on Kenny's other side. She, too, had foregone her usual uniform of sports t-shirt and hoodie with jeans, and was wearing a pretty white and red striped tank top under a black sweater, and navy blue tab trousers. Averman squinted, and smiled to himself- he had detected a hint of mascara.

The redhead shook his head and struggled to bring himself back to the matter at hand. What was WITH him getting lost in his own head?

"So, where are we with this?" There. That sounded important.

Parker stared at him. "Well, since we've picked the topic already, we're just about… well, that's all we have."

"Can we refresh my memory on what that is, again?" Averman asked weakly.

Kenny elbowed him. "Dude," he said exasperatedly. "We're doing Moloney versus professional sporting event attendance, and whether there should be an attendance support rule. Is this ringing ANY bells?"

Suze watched with amusement.

Averman grinned. "You know," he said, pointing a finger, "That does sound vaguely familiar, now that you have it all out there."

Parker was frantically writing in her notebook as this little interlude was going on. Kenny looked over her shoulder but couldn't make anything out. Damn her tiny handwriting. His confusion grew considerably when she started drawing lines all intersecting on the page.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes, all curiously.

Parker scowled. "Uh, what does it look like, genius? I'm making a mock-up of a survey… it seems like the best way to collect the most data."

Kenny blinked. "Oh. Right. Yeah, that's… that's a good idea."

"I thought so," Parker replied primly, crossing her arms across her chest. She looked over at Averman and Suze. "Want to conduct surveys in shifts during the brunch rush tomorrow?"

Averman and Kenny looked at each other. "Shifts?" Averman repeated, pushing his glasses up his nose. "What if we just did an hour or so and went to brunch together to discuss the findings?"

Parker huffed. "I guess," she said finally.

Suze leaned back and caught her friend's eye behind Kenny's back. She shot the outfielder a look that said, '_Dude, what the hell?'_ Out loud, the peacemaking brunette smiled and said, "Okay, so, want to meet outside the dining hall around 11?"

"Sounds good," Kenny said. He shoved his papers into his notebook. "Anything else?"

"Nope," Suze said, gathering her binder and pens and shoving them into her JanSport. "Oppenheim just needs us to check in with him before we go."

"Oh goody," Averman muttered, his frown matching Parker's.

* * *

"You okay?" Averman asked half an hour later, outside the atrium to Ashe Dormitory. He motioned to a bench. Kenny had split up from them a while ago to go back to their room to print a paper, leaving Averman with a pissed-off Parker.

"No," mumbled Parker. She stuffed her hands in her sweater pockets grumpily.

"Could've fooled me," Averman said, a little more snippy than he had meant to.

Parker stared up at him, her green eyes wounded. "Next week's Thanksgiving," she said in a small voice.

Averman tried to wrap his head around that one. Thanksgiving. Delicious food. Football, which wasn't as awesome as hockey, but people crashed into each other, so that was okay. Pie. Seeing his parents and sister, and their hamster, Tolkien. Hanging with the Ducks at the diner while the rest of the world was out Black Friday shopping.

He nudged her with his shoulder. "You got me, kid," he said. "What gives?"

Parker bit her lip. "Well, I told Kenny he could come home with me, you know, cos a ticket to San Fran is expensive and Christmas is soon anyway, and Rhode Island isn't that far away and I was driving home anyway..." She paused and shrugged a few times. "It's gunna be weird, you know?"

Averman sighed. "You guys are friends, though," he said quietly. "It won't be weird."

Parker shrugged again. "It might be."

"Just… I dunno, put on the Spice Girls and rock out, get some coffee," Averman suggested. "Act like nothing's changed since you kissed, and maybe it will work out, if you don't want to talk to him about it." He paused. "Is this why you were mad in Oppenheim's class?"

Parker nodded. "He's kind of being weird. I don't want weird. I want normal."

"Well, what if weird is your new normal?" Averman asked. He shrugged. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary today, but I do know he's noticed that you've been blowing him off recently…"

Parker sighed. "I guess." She gave him a look. "What kind of awful person doesn't want to hang out with their best friend?"

Averman smiled pityingly. "Awww," he said, drawing her into a hug, "You're not an awful person. You guys will figure this out."

Her response was muffled against his Doctor Who t-shirt. "Thanks, Aves."

He smiled over the top of her hair. "No problem. C'mon. Let's go find some coffee. I need a jolt before my lab."

* * *

Russ and Dom had a routine down on Saturday mornings. Usually, since they'd spent the night in one room or the other together, they swung by the other room for a change of clothes. After brunch, they went downtown to get coffee or ice cream, depending on their moods, and concluded with homework punctuated by some fairly long makeout sessions.

Today was no different. Since Russ was long-overdue for some serious laundry, all he had to wear was an old, faded t-shirt from the Junior Goodwill Games and the pair of jeans he'd put on the day before. Not ideal, but not awful, either.

Dom, on the other hand, had taken advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to put on a dress she'd gotten in Jamaica- oranges, teals, deep blues, and yellows, with a halter neck and sandals. Her braids clinked as she moved.

When they rounded the corner to the dining hall, they were surprised to see Dom's roommate, Parker, holding a clipboard and harassing total strangers.

"What is she doing?" Russ whispered to Dom as they got closer.

"Damned if I know," was her puzzled response. The swimmer assessed the situation before her. Parker was usually fairly normal, mood-wise, and was prone to mood swings, just like everyone else. Today, though, she seemed abnormally perky, and that alone was cause for question in Dom's book.

That, and she was wearing a skirt.

It was a denim skirt over black leggings, to be fair, but she'd lived with Parker for the past three months, and in those three months she'd seen the softball player wear a skirt once. ONCE. She noted with some satisfaction that the short blonde was also wearing a shirt Dom herself had helped her pick out- a Blondie concert t-shirt- and a pink cardigan with black glittery flats.

Russ elbowed her. "Uh, what's Kenny wearing?"

Her gaze cut to the tall Asian, standing several feet away from her roommate. He was, oddly enough, dressed similarly. His red sweater looked like an old man's, but his inner nerd peeked through when she spied a Pikachu shirt underneath.

"His jeans look fantastic," she murmured.

Russ looked at her in mock outrage. "Are you checkin' out the Little Bash Brother? What is this world coming to?"

Dom pointed. "You have to admit, his ass was MADE for American Eagle jeans."

Russ shuddered. "Whatever, babe. I'd prefer your eyes to be on my ass, but if you wanna creep on skinny little Ken, be my guest."

Dom swatted his arm playfully. "Baby," she cooed, "You know I'm your girl." She gave him a quick peck on the lips, and then smiled. "Let's go see what he's up to."

Kenny smiled when he saw them approach. His eyes crinkled in the cutest way. He brushed his hair out of his eyes as he said, "Hey guys! Want to give me a few minutes for a survey we're doing?"

"Aww, man! Do we have to?" Russ complained. He patted his belly jokingly. "I'm hungry!"

"Just a few seconds? Please? For science's sake?"

Russ huffed. "Fine." He waved at his friend. "Hit me."

Kenny started reading off his clipboard, and in a few minutes, his friends were on their way again. He, Parker, and Averman continued in this vein for another hour or so, pausing their polite interruptions only for when Portman and Fulton skateboarded by and grabbed Averman's clipboard away from him, cackling hysterically.

The three chased after the two Bash Brothers, but to no avail.

"It's no use," Averman panted as they skated out of sight. "It's a sign. Let's eat."

* * *

Averman flipped his computer off. He had been working on the same lab report for hours, ever since he had left the dining hall. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. Who really cared about the life cycle of mealworms, anyway?

Across the room, Dwayne was napping in his desk chair. He didn't understand how the Texan could slouch in the hard-backed wooden chair so easily, and prop his feet up on the desk without falling over. Averman figured if he'd tried that, he'd be in a heap underneath his desk. Kenny was at his desk, his earbuds in and the sound of frantically typing fingers kept the room from being completely silent.

Music. That could help. Averman opened his iTunes, and scrolled down thoughtfully. When Aerosmith started to play, his shoulders relaxed a little. Enough for him to return to his lab report, at least.

A few minutes later, his mind began to wander again. His thoughts turned to Thanksgiving. Since Moloney was in Pennsylvania, a trip to Minnesota was far enough away to be an adventure, but close enough to do for a week. Thankfully Banks had a car, a gas-guzzling SUV type that Averman couldn't stand but it was a ride, so, why look a gift-Banksie in the mouth, right? He figured the same rang true for the other Minnesota Ducks. It would be nice to have the old crew together for a little while.

Most of the old Ducks lived around Minneapolis, so Averman figured the ones hitching rides in the Banksiemobile would be him, Charlie, Goldberg, Fulton, Guy, and Connie. As for the rest of the Ducks, he knew Julie was going to Connie's for Thanksgiving, so that made eight in the Banksiemobile.

He relished the thought of the moment when Banks discovered that one person was minus a seatbelt. What a mother hen. Maybe he'd have his camera ready.

Portman had already booked a flight to Chicago. Russ was spending Thanksgiving with Dominique and her family, all of whom were flying into Philadelphia for the week from Jamaica. Dwayne had cousins in Cleveland. Kenny was going home with Parker to some rinkydink Rhode Island town.

Speaking of rinkydink Rhode Island towns…

He turned around in his chair to survey the back of his roommate's head. He wondered if the impending trip north was as stressful to the Little Bash Brother as it seemed to be to the softball player. He knew they hadn't talked about anything, since a quick text to Kenny the night before, when the RAs had held their 'closing for break' meeting and were discussing the timeframe for people to be out of the halls by, revealed that he had no idea when they were setting off.

He took out a notebook and carefully tore a piece of paper out, taking great pains to stick to the perforated lines. He hated the frillies. He crumpled the paper unceremoniously and lobbed it across the room at Kenny's head.

He missed.

He did, however, catch Kenny's attention. The Asian boy yanked his earbuds out and whirled around. "Dude!" he said. "What?"

Averman gave him a cheeky, dimpled smile. "I'm sick of lab reports. Let's go do something."

Kenny glared at him. "I need to finish this paper on third-world economics," he said grumpily. "It's due tomorrow."

Averman stood up and stretched, his Iron Man shirt riding up over his pale stomach. Kenny tossed the paper ball back at his roommate, hitting him in the belly button. "You're a douche. Let's get coffee!"

"I am NOT going to get coffee," Kenny replied sulkily, settling back down in his seat and turning his attention back to his computer screen.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Get that, it'll be something to do," Kenny said over his shoulder.

Averman made a face at him.

"Saw that."

"Well, la de da!" Averman stuck his tongue out for good measure before flinging open the door. "Hey, Parker!"

Kenny whirled around again, a brief look of panic on his usually calm face. Sure enough, the blonde outfielder was making herself comfortable in Russ' desk chair. He took in her braided hair (he knew from endless afternoons of homework and tv marathons that she was awful at braiding and usually conned Julie or Connie into braiding it for her) and her red Special Olympics t-shirt, her Moloney softball hoodie casually slung over an arm. He chided himself immediately for taking such an inventory of her appearance.

_Don't be a creep,_ he told himself. To make up for it, he did the dude nod. "S'up, Parker?"

She gave him a confused look. "Well, I swung by 'cos I know that the beginning of the week is usually cray-cray for you, and wanted to know when you wanted to leave."

Kenny stared at her. "Leave?"

"You know… for Rhode Island? Thanksgiving? We can leave either Friday or Saturday, based on what you've got going on," she said patiently.

Kenny picked up his iPhone. "Uh… I have a meeting with coach on Wednesday, but then I've got no classes after that. Economics was canceled Thursday, so… yeah." He looked up. "What's your schedule like?"

"About the same," Parker replied. "I have Brit Lit Friday morning, but that's it." She flipped through her phone. "We could leave after that? It goes til 10."

Kenny nodded. "Sounds good," he said evenly. Truth was, he was excited to be spending time one on one with her in her hometown. Her older sister Randall was flying home from an archaeological dig site in Arizona, and the three of them had signed up ages ago to do the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.

Averman watched this exchange carefully from his corner of the room. He had been feeding information to Charlie for ages- the captain was notorious for having endless amounts of gossip on his friends that had come in handy from time to time. After all, he was the one who helped Guy and Connie get together back in the Junior Goodwill Games day. However, Charlie hadn't been around much- between Adam's psychotic gym schedule for the two of them and trying to keep up with Linda, who was his on-again, off-again girlfriend studying pre-law at Harvard.

Being in the car with Charlie was going to prove entertaining, to say the least- last he'd heard from Guy, Linda had thrown a hissy fit when Charlie had texted her a good luck message in the middle of one of her midterms and gotten her exam taken away, so they were off-again, which meant at least one ridiculous story.

"So…" Parker said, trailing off awkwardly. She peered across the room at Kenny's computer screen. "Whatcha workin' on?"

"Economics paper," Kenny made a face. He and Parker had bonded early on at a group outing to Paulo's over their mutual dislike for math of any kind- they had over-paid their share of the bill by at least fifteen dollars apiece, much to the delight of Russ and Charlie. Ever since, they would come up with reasons to ask the two of them to add or subtract something for them.

Once, Russ had even filmed one of these moments on his iPhone. Two glorious minutes of Parker trying to figure out what 20 percent off of a shirt was at the sports store in the mall nearby had found their way to the internet, and according to Russ, had gotten hits from as far away as Thailand.

Parker crinkled her nose in disgust. Kenny's heart skipped a beat. That face was one of his favorites. "Ew," she said. "Dude, why are you working on that without coffee?"

"My point exactly!" Averman crowed, thrusting an angry finger at the Asian boy. "See?"

"I just want to get it done," Kenny said, glaring at his roommate.

"You sure?" Parker asked. Then, in a sing-song voice, "You suuuuure you don't want some nice cofffffffeee?"

She knew she had hit home with her friend. It was common knowledge that coffee helped any situation. Parker herself made sure that her travel mug was filled before going to her own remedial math class. She also knew for a fact that, despite his typical geeky boy exterior, he couldn't resist hazelnut coffee with an extra shot of espresso.

Such a manly drink.

A few minutes later, the three of them were walking downtown towards the local coffee shop, Java Joe's, which had proven to be a popular haunt with Moloney students. A redheaded girl Kenny recognized from his economics class was busy typing away on a computer at a table next to the window. As they got closer, she looked up. She waved.

"Ooooh, Kenn-ay!" Averman cackled. "Little Redheaded Girl for Charlie Brown, in the window!" He paused. "Though, come to think of it, are there any Asians in the Peanuts world?"

Kenny forced a smile, and waved back quickly. "Shut up, Averman."

Averman held the door open for Parker, and then slid in front of Kenny, sticking his tongue out as he shut the door in Kenny's face.

Parker snickered when Kenny wrenched the door open again. The girl by the window was watching closely, and seemed amused. For a second Parker was convinced that she was seconds away from coming up to them. As if.

She positioned herself so she was standing in front of Kenny. She could still see that redhead if she looked past his elbow. She smiled up at him.

"So," she said, "I can't wait for you to meet my family on Friday." Her words carried across the room, which wasn't all that big a feat, considering that the shop was small and it was mostly quiet, save for the oldies music playing on the ancient, dusty stereo behind the counter.

The redhead totally overheard- she immediately sat up straight and stared at Parker. Her glare was unmistakably aimed at the softball player. Parker smiled sweetly.

"Me too," Kenny said. "You said your sister was coming home, too, right?"

"Yep," she replied. "We're doing the Turkey Trot together, remember?" The Turkey Trot was a Little Compton tradition. She couldn't remember a Thanksgiving where her family hadn't run the race. There were pictures in the family albums where she and Randall were in a wagon, their race numbers pinned to their matching pullovers, for crying out loud.

Kenny smiled. "Right." He leaned down to whisper, "I'm totally going to kick your ass."

Parker snuck a peek at the girl in the window. She looked furious. Later, when they were texting, Averman would tell her that it had appeared that Kenny had kissed her. Satisfied, Parker turned around and gave her order to the bored kid behind the counter.

The boys walked Parker back to Ashe, promising to text later for dinner. She waltzed inside, feeling both vindicated that she had staked her claim, so to speak, and a little guilty, because, well, she and Kenny weren't together in any sense of the word. Deciding to take the elevator for once, she sipped her coffee contentedly.

She walked down the hall, smiling or waving to her neighbors. She stopped in her doorway.

"Uh… what happened?" On one of the beanbag chairs, Lee sat sniffling, Julie and Connie on either side, comforting her. Mara looked on awkwardly. It wasn't until she spoke that Parker realized that Dominique was in the room.

"Parker… Andrea was just here." Her eyes were solemn and red, as if she had also been crying. "The school board has scheduled a meeting with Jared to discuss his expulsion."

"What?! Why?" Parker was confused.

"According to the report that was filed, he's been fired from Residence Life and may be expelled based on how he placed residents in jeopardy on the hike," Dominique said. "He was asked to move into a student room across campus until then."

* * *

A/N: Hey guys. I've started writing in a notebook every day, and have the next several chapters outlined. Hopefully it won't take nearly as long for the next update. No promises, obviously, but at LEAST by the end of August. Hopefully. As always, read and review, cos I'd love to hear your thoughts or suggestions! Over and out! ~Flyinghawk


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